Splatoon: Electric Splataloo
by InsomniousNights
Summary: He's saved Inkopolis and nearly single handedly stopped the Octarian threat. He now wants to live his life as a normal Inkling his age. But he'll find out that after a war, getting back to a normal life isn't the easiest thing to do. Reviews encouraged and appreciated.
1. Weapons

"So, let me get this straight. You, the hero of Inkopolis, don't know what a Turf War is?"

The baffled horseshoe crab looked up to the teen standing before him, who didn't seem to be fully aware of what was wrong.

"No, I just-, look, Sheldon, I know what a Turf War is. You go around this arena and spray your color of ink everywhere, the team with the most area covered wins. Alright? I got that down. My problem is that I don't exactly, well, know how to play correctly. I want to get into the whole Turf War scene but I've been so deep into the whole war with the Octarians thing for, like, a year. So I don't really know anything about it. Like, is there a certain strategy you're supposed to employ? What do I do if a bomb comes my way? What are the best weapons to use? Chargers? Sloshers? Rollers? I just don't really know if there's anything I can-"

The boy cut himself off when he discovered that Sheldon had fallen asleep while he was talking. He gave Sheldon a little shake on the shoulder to jolt him back into consciousness.

"Huh? W-What were we talking about?"

"I'm beginning to think that you were the wrong person to talk to about this."

He began to turn to leave the store when Sheldon grabbed his arm to keep him in place.

"Now look here Mr. Michael, I may not be the most well-versed in the whole thing with 'battle strategies' and the like, but I'm the only one here who sells weapons, and something is telling me that you only have that Splattershot you used against the Octarians."

"Um…" An awkward silence loomed over the two.

"You don't even have that?" Sheldon asked dryly.

"Captain Cuttlefish said it was only temporary, and I never told him I didn't have any other weapons!"

Sheldon put his hand to his face and shook his head while groaning.

"Okay. Look, I have a lot of regular Splattershots that I give to the new guys. Going off of what I saw they should be pretty similar to the one you used. They're in the storage room back there. There's a training facility where you can go test it out if you want."

"Aw, man, thanks Sheldon! You're the best!"

Michael excitedly went into the designated room to get his weapon.

"That kid's got a _long_ way to go."


	2. Lobby

"So, how do you like it?"

"It's great! It feels exactly like what I used before!"

Michael held his new Splattershot in the air, admiring its different look from his previous weapon.

"That's great to hear. I'm glad you're satisfied with it."

"So how much for it?"

"Uh… you know what? I'll give it to you for free."

"Really? You sure?"

"Uh, yeah. Consider it my thanks for saving our city."

"Aw man, you're great. I'll recommend you… if I ever find a time where I can recommend you."

"I appreciate it."

Michael waved back to Sheldon as he exited the store into the plaza of Inkopolis. This was going to be a good day.

* * *

Even though many Inklings look similar, Michael stood out among the crowd. Sure, he was like every other Inkling boy, with his hair tied up in a scrunchie, but everyone in Inkopolis had familiarized themselves with his appearance that almost anyone could pick him out in a crowd. This, as you would probably think, made it difficult to make his way through the plaza. He was nearly constantly stopped with questions such as _"Are you Michael?"_ or _"Didn't you stop the Octarians?"_ This turned a walk to the Inkopolis Tower that should have only taken a few seconds into a three minute long trip of a constant stream of questions.

Once Michael was able to escape into the tower is was immediately given a list of different battles he could play.

"Lessee here… Regular Battle, Ranked Battle, and Squad Battle." Michael mulled over his choices before settling on Regular Battle. He was given a quick preview of the two stages he could play on in the coming battle, Saltspray Rig and Urchin Underpass, before being transported to a waiting lobby.

The lobby was basically a large elevator that was filled with seats, four on each side. Michael seated himself in the first free seat he saw. He looked at the seven other Inklings in the lobby. Michael looked at his own team, two girls and another boy. He recognized their weapons, one girl had her arm wrapped around an E-Liter that looked just a bit too big for her small stature. The boy was checking the condition on his Splatling. The second girl was holding a .52 Gal. Captain Cuttlefish had practically drilled the weapon's names into Michael's brain, just in case any Octarians started using them. The girl using the .52 Gal took notice that Michael was looking at her weapon.

"Impressive, innit?"

"Huh?"

"I noticed you were looking at my weapon. Quite a nice shooter, it is. Been usin' it for quite a while now, think I might take it all the way. Oh, 'scuse me, I should've introduced myself. Name's Angela, nice to meetcha." She held out her hand.

While shaking her hand Michael responded "I'm Michael, nice to meet you too."

Angela, taking notice of his Splattershot and his clothes put two and two together.

"I take it yer new to turf wars? You don't need to worry yerself, this is just a regular battle, nothin' really at stake here."

Michael simply nodded in response.

"Oh, right, these two here are my friends, Randy and Shelly." She directed his eyes to the two other Inklings on his team. They both looked back at him and greeted him.

After a bit of waiting the lobby finally stopped at its location, Michael's team all changed color to purple while the other team turned green. They got off at Saltspray Rig and all prepared at their starting points.

"Alright guys, get ready." Angela said to her team.

All four readied their weapons.

 _3…_

 _2…_

 _1…_


	3. Turf War

_GO!_

Michael and his team rushed out of their spawn point. Michael could see the enemy team on the other side of the map, rushing out of their spawn just as quick. Angela dashed to the lower area, her path being mimicked by a roller on the opposite side. Once they landed on the platform the roller made an immediate path towards Angela. She ran backwards, distancing herself from him while shooting in his direction. As he got closer Angela's shots hit more and more, piling up until the roller got splattered, leaving his weapon on the ground. Angela proceeded to cover up the rest of the platform and advanced forward.

Michael followed Randy and Shelly in their path towards the tower in the distance, shooting his ink in their path. He eventually got ahead of them, covering the ground in ink for them to get around quickly. He covered as many walls as possible, and even splatted a few enemies. The Michael and Randy got to the tower, with Shelly staying behind to find a good sniping spot. Michael inked the tower letting Randy swim to the top. Michael hadn't noticed the enemy team coming their way, and he would've been splatted if not for Randy. He had revved up his Splatling and shot a continuous array of ink at them, splatting nearly the entire team, all the while laughing maniacally. Satisfied with his work he unrevved his Splatling, only to find out he had missed one enemy who surfaced behind him. Just before being splattered the enemy was shot and splattered by a well-aimed sniper shot by Shelly.

"Boom, headshot…" Shelly whispered to herself.

Michael smiled at his teammate's work. They seemed to have the map on lockdown.

Randy called down to him "Oi, Mike! You should go help Angela. Shelly and I got this place secured."

Michael nodded and rushed to go find Angela.

He found her in a fight with the same roller from earlier. He seemed to be more aggressively swinging his roller at her, trying to flick his ink and splat her. He was too far away for Michael to get directly but maybe if he…

That's when it clicked. Michael grabbed a bomb and filled it with ink, he then chucked it at the wall. It ricocheted off and landed right into the roller's head, detonating and splatting him. Michael himself was surprised that it had actually worked and started laughing hysterically.

"Th-That was- That had absolutely NO business working at all!" Michael said while trying to talk coherently in his fit of laughs.

Even Angela herself couldn't keep herself from laughing. "That guy got absolutely _decimated._ Oh man, ain't no way he's gonna live _that_ down."

Michael wiped a tear from his eye when he stopped laughing. Right as the match had ended. The black and white cat, Judd, came to announce the results. He did a small dance as the results were calculated and finally raised the flag of purple, the winning team.

"Meow! (The purple team wins at a stunning 86.9% of the map covered!)" Judd exclaimed.

Angela and her team cheered at their victory. She high fived Michael, who was equally happy to win his first match.

"Meow. (Here's everyone's money for this match. Good luck on your next match.)" Judd said as he handed small sacks of money to each person on the map.

While they headed back to the lobby to get back to Inkopolis Angela made small talk with Michael.

"Hey, Mikey, how'd you do that thing with the bomb? Here I was thinkin' you were new. Where'd you learn to do that?"

"Oh, well, uh. I guess you could say I've had practice."

"Hey, that's a good enough answer fer me."

Michael was grateful that she didn't press any further. He didn't know why but he didn't really want to share that he was the hero of Inkopolis. It was nice to know that there were some people who didn't recognize him. He didn't want to ruin it by parading around that he stopped the Octarians.

His thoughts were interrupted by a pat on the back from Randy.

"Hey man, nice work for your first match. You did pretty good. Right, Shelly?"

"Yeah." Shelly said quietly.

"Well, uh, thanks guys. To be honest I didn't expect to win that match."

"Yeah, thatsa normal feelin' most newbies have when they go into their first match. You get yer confidence built up the more you battle. Speakin' of which, whaddya guys think about ol' Mikey here joining us?"

"Hey I'm cool with it. He showed some nice performance today. Besides, we could use a fourth team member so we can finally go into those squad battles. Once Mike gets to level 10, that is."

"Shelly?"

Shelly was silent for a bit, almost as if the question didn't register at first. Angela was about to ask again when Shelly spoke up.

"I'd like for Michael to join us."

"Well, I guess it's decided. Mikey, yer with us now!" Angela said as she held her hand out to Michael. "Welcome to the team!"

Michael was a bit surprised at the rapid development. He was so happy to be accepted into a group on his first day of battling. He took Angela's hand into his own and shook.

"Thank you guys. Thank you so much."

"C'mon now, we've all got got a place for us to stay, it's not the best but it's nice either way."

The team left the arena, their hair turning back to their original colors, the purple ink disappearing as they went back home.


	4. Fluff(?)

The sun had nearly set when Michael and his new team arrived at the house Angela had mentioned. On the exterior Michael could see that it was only one story tall. The house had a small chimney rising from the roof.

"It's not much but, make yerself at home."

Angela let Michael enter the team's house first. The place was pretty spacious. The front door led into the house's living room which had a couch and a decently sized tv on a dresser in front of it, with a wooden table separating them. The living room led directly into a small kitchen. With a small counter that gave in opening between the living room and kitchen. Breaking off from the living room was a hall that led to four rooms, Angela's, Randy's, Shelly's and the house's bathroom.

"So, uh, where am I staying?"

Angela seemed at bit surprised at Michael's question.

"Oh gosh darn it, I forgot that we didn't have a fourth room. I guess there's always that couch there but… hm."

Shelly interrupted Angela's thinking.

"He can stay in my room."

"Oh, that's right. Shelly's got a bunk bed that hasn't really been used. You could bunk with her if you want."

"Uh, sure, I guess. That'd be okay."

Shelly then took Michael's hand and directed him to her room. For such a small girl it seemed like she was surprisingly strong.

' _Probably from carrying around that E-Liter all the time'_ Michael thought to himself.

"Heh. She really clings onto new members quickly doesn't she?" Randy asked Angela.

"Yeah, she was the same way with you when you first joined." Angela suddenly started giggling. "Remember- remember how 'ya thought she was in love with you? Remember how 'ya got all red and nervous whenever she talked to 'ya?" Angela couldn't help but laugh at the memory.

Randy got very frustrated "Yeah, yeah, sure, bring up _my_ embarrassing memories why don't you." He said in a sour tone.

"This is my room. That's your bed up there." Shelly said flatly. She was introducing Michael to the room. Michael climbed up onto his bed, it was somewhat firm, but Michael could get used to it.

"Is there anything else I should know about this room?"

"There's a mini-fridge I bought if you get hungry."

"Oh, uh, alright."

"It's gonna be night soon. I'm gonna go get ready for bed."

Shelly left the room, leaving Michael to sit on his bed and rest after the day. He looked over to the wall opposite of his bed to see Shelly's E-Liter leaning against it. He kind of admired how it looked.

Thinking back to the battle that day, Michael wondered about something that troubled him.

' _Why didn't they all recognize me? Everyone in the plaza that day was crowding around me but Angela and her team didn't so much as bat an eye.'_

Michael was both relieved and disturbed by this, he was pretty much a superstar around Inkopolis, possibly rivaling the Squid Sisters in popularity. He didn't mind not being in the spotlight for once but there was something about not being recognized at all that rubbed him the wrong way.

' _I'm probably over-thinking it, they might just not be from around here.'_

Shelly returned to the room. Michael saw she had changed into a pair of pajamas. She got into the bed below his and turned off the lamp next to it.

"Goodnight Shelly." Michael said as he got ready to sleep as well.

Sounds of rhythmic breathing told Michael that Shelly had already gone to sleep.

Michael followed in Shelly's path and after a few seconds of waiting with his eyes shut, he finally drifted off into unconsciousness.

* * *

Michael awoke in the middle of night to something shuffling around at his side. Being half-asleep, Michael wasn't entirely alerted to the possible danger, so he simply moved his hand around lazily to try and make whatever was moving go away. He only awoke fully when the entity continued to move, causing him to lift the blanket off of him to see what was there.

"Hey."

It was Shelly.

Michael was more confused than surprised or angry. He still wasn't fully awake so the implications of Shelly being in his bed with him didn't register completely.

"Shelly. I'm half-asleep right now so I'm just going to ask you straight-up. What the hell are you doing in my bed?"

"I had a bad dream."

This response just baffled him even more.

"Shelly, you're 14 right?" At least he thought she was, with how small Shelly was it was hard to tell.

"Mhm."

"So why are you coming to sleep in my bed if you had a bad dream?"

Shelly just shrugged her shoulders.

Michael didn't have much to say in response other than a frustrated groan.

"Okay. Shelly. I'm going to go back to sleep now, if you want to stay in my bed feel free to but just please don't wake me up. If Angela or Randy see us like this I'm going to blame you either way. Alright?"

Shelly saluted to confirm her understanding.

"Okay. Goodnight."

Michael pulled the whole blanket over himself as he turned away and lied down. He felt Shelly lie down next to him. He looked back to see that she wasn't covered by a blanket. He turned his head back and he threw a bit of his blanket over her.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

And with that, Michael's brain went back to its former state.

* * *

 **Brace yourself folks because it's about to get real ANIME up in here.**

 **No but seriously before anyone asks, no, Shelly does not love Michael (At least not yet). She simply likes messing with people new to the team.**

 **Also, to answer your question, Anon360 (since I can't respond to you directly because you're an anon), I used "Everyone" as an exaggeration in chapter 2. There are always going to be some people who don't recognize you, even if you're famous.**


	5. Morning

**Before I kick this new chapter off I'd just like to give a quick run-down of the ink colors of the team for people that are curious.**

 **Michael – Dark Blue**

 **Angela – Green**

 **Randy – Red-Orange**

 **Shelly – Mint**

 **With that, let's continue the story.**

* * *

"Good morning."

Michael was greeted into the new day by the sight of his new friend Shelly, looming over him. With the same blank face that she always seemed to have.

Michael sat up and looked over to Shelly. She was sitting on her knees in the same place she had gone to sleep the night before, with her hands resting neatly on the top of her lap.

"You know Shelly," Michael took a moment to yawn "when I said that you could stay in my bed for the rest of the night I was kind of expecting you to go back to your own bed. Not actually take up my offer."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because, well… It's kind of weird for you to be sleeping with me in my bed, y'know?"

Shelly shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay whatever, it's morning now so it doesn't matter."

Michael jumped off the bed, with Shelly following.

"I'm going to go get dressed."

Shelly left the room with her clothes. Michael didn't exactly have any sleeping clothes, he would always just sleep in whatever he was wearing. He left the room and went to the living room, where Randy was sitting on the couch watching a news station on the TV.

"Hey Randy."

Randy turned his head back to look at Michael "Yo."

Michael sat on the other side of the couch, the newscaster was reporting on something to do with a prison break, Michael wasn't exactly listening as Randy started to talk to him.

"So man, I was thinking, y'know how you only got that Splattershot right now? I was wondering what kind of weapon you'd use once you got the money and experience for it."

"Iunno, probably just a different shooter. I don't really have much experience with these weapons."

"Well I do. We could go somewhere like a shooting range to test out some weapon types for you sometime. When Sheldon allows you to actually use them, that is."

"Why wouldn't he?"

"Don't you know? Sheldon doesn't let new guys use weapons he deems 'too advanced' for them."

"He does? That's kind of… weird."

"Yeah, well, probably just following some sort of code for weapon selling."

"Well either way, that sounds cool. I'll take you up on that offer."

"Nice, a bit more battling and you'll be ready."

"…resulting in 2 dead and 13 injured."

The voice of reporter from the TV only just caught the attention of the two.

"…Should we have been listening to that?"

"Probably."

Shelly and Angela came in from their respective rooms, with Shelly fully prepared for the day and Angela looking like she had just woken up.

"Morning." Angela didn't even sound like she was fully awake.

"Angela's not really a morning person. I've seen her go through four cups of coffee and still be tired." Randy off-handedly mentioned to Michael, just out of Angela's hearing range. "Trust me you do _not_ want to wake her up in the middle of the night. Shelly and I will pray for your life if you do by accident."

Michael watched Angela go into the kitchen and prepared a cup of coffee. He almost had to double take when she poured an energy drink into the coffee and nearly drank half the cup in one go.

"Angela's got some… weird tastes. Even I'm not sure what she's thinking when it comes to food sometimes." Randy said, obviously taking notice to Michael's confusion.

"Point taken."

Angela sat down between Randy and Michael with her drink in her hand. Shelly followed suit and sat next to Michael.

"So Mikey, whaddya think of the house?" Angela asked

"Oh, it's pretty nice. You said you bought this with your money from Turf Wars?"

"Mhm. Was a group effort though, took a while to pay for it. Me 'n' Randy were living in a crummy apartment when Shelly showed up. Barely had any room for the three of us. Randy remembers it well."

Michael looked past Angela to Randy, who had a horrified look on his face.

"…Why was there a bees' nest in the couch?" Randy said to himself in the same voice a shell-shocked soldier of a deadly war would use.

"Took at least a week to get that thing out. Couch was nothin' but a bunch of stuffing after how much we had to cut it up. On the bright side we've got enough honey to last us a lifetime." Angela walked towards a cupboard in the kitchen and opened it to reveal the shelves were stuffed to the brim with jars of honey.

"…Anyways, Me 'n' Randy were planning to go shopping today. Just wonderin' if you'd like to come with us, Mikey."

"Oh, sure. I'm cool with that."

"Cool. You wanna come with, Shell?"

"No thanks. I'm expecting a package to get delivered."

"Alright. I was plannin' to leave at like, noon. Feel free to do whatever until then." Angela said to Michael and Randy before leaving to her room.


	6. Tactical Espionage Action

**HOPE YA' GUYS LIKE FILLER BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THIS CHAPTER IS!**

 **Who am I kidding, a lot of you probably watch anime and read manga on a daily basis, you're basically desensitized to filler now.**

* * *

' _This was a_ _ **bad**_ _idea.'_

Michael had accepted to go out shopping with Angela and Randy. Only problem was he hadn't factored in that, well, he was famous. A lot of people in the plaza were whispering to each other as he walked past, no doubt asking each other about the two other squids that were with him.

Since Michael was inexperienced in battle and was deemed too 'unfresh' by the store clerks to buy some of their gear he opted to wait outside while Angela and Randy bought what they needed. He was desperately trying to keep a low profile so nobody would notice him but the plan was soured near-instantaneously when one young Inkling girl saw him acting a bit too weird.

"Hey mister! What're you doing?"

"Huh? O-Oh, nothing, just, uh, standing here. Y'know just standing around, waiting for some friends, uh, yeah."

"You know mister, you look a lot like that Michael guy. Y'know, the hero of Inkopolis?"

"O-Oh me? Oh, I am mistaken for him all the time! It's kind of a problem." Michael nervously laughed, trying to keep his excuse believable. "Yes, I, uh, frequently get the paparazzi and the camera crews crowding around me and they get disappointed when I say "Sorry guys! I'm not Michael!" uh, yeah."

Any sane person would have seen through the admittedly paper-thin excuse, but the girl seemed to be especially dense enough to not notice it. Unfortunately for Michael, she kept pressing questions on him.

"Do you know the real Michael?"

"Hm? Oh, n-no, we just look alike. I don't think he'd really hang out with someone like me anyways!"

"Really? I'd be friends with someone who looked just like me, it'd be sooo cool to meet someone who looked just like me! We'd play and go to the park and play pranks on people."

"Uh, y-y'know it's not really nice to trick people like that."

"Aww, you're no fun. You're just like my parents."

"Now hold up there kiddo, I'm plenty of fun, I fight in Turf Wars!"

She understandably was enthralled to hear the words 'Turf' and 'War' spoken together, the obvious differences with how Inklings looked when they aged let Michael guess that she was probably around 5 or 6 years of age.

"Really!?" She suddenly grabbed onto Michael's shirt. "You have to teach me about it…"

Michael, due to both not being very experienced in Turf Wars in the first place, and, to put it bluntly, wanting the girl to go away, went for the default response.

"I, uh, I can teach you when you're older."

"Aww, c'mon! Please?"

"No, uh, I can't. My, uh, employer says I can't teach people under 14. Believe me he's _very_ strict about it, even you'll get punished for it."

"Why?"

"Just the rules he gave me. I, uh, promise to teach you when you're older."

"Alright..." The girl looked utterly defeated.

Michael, feeling a bit sorry for her, decided to indulge her just a tiny bit.

"But, uh, I can give you a tip to remember, for when you're old enough. Uh, be sure to give your teammates an easy swimming path if they're using weapons like chargers. It takes a while for them to ink the place up, y'know?"

The girl seemed extremely happy.

"Thanks mister! I'm gonna go tell all my friends about that!"

She ran off, leaving a relieved Michael to continue his attempts at being inconspicuous. Fortunately for him Angela and Randy soon came out from the stores they went shopping at. Angela from Cooler Heads and Randy from Ammo Knights.

"Did you guys get what you needed?"

"Yup! I did at least, I doubt Randy found anything he was looking for."

"Why did they make only _one_ Splatling!? It makes no sense! They just became legal to use and they're not even going to give us multiple options? This is an injustice I tell you!"

"Yeah, sure thing Randy. C'mon let's get back home."

* * *

Returning to their house, Shelly was at the door to greet them, with a cardboard box on the kitchen counter that she was sitting in front of.

"I see your package arrived." Angela said. "What'd ya' order?"

Shelly opened the package to reveal…

A sweater.

That was a bit too big for her.

"I had it ordered from Spyke."

She put it on top of her current clothes, her hands could just barely get out of the sleeves, with only her fingers poking out.

"I think he might've gotten the order just a bit wrong." Randy pointed out.

"It's good enough for me." Shelly walked over to the couch and started watching TV.

"Why does Spyke always mess up her orders like that?" Angela asked.

Randy could only just shrug his shoulders.


	7. While He Thinks

Michael couldn't sleep that night. Whether it was because something was bugging him, or if he just didn't feel like sleeping, he didn't know. He could only keep sleeping for about two hours. When he awoke, he looked to his side to see if Shelly was there. Nobody. He looked over and under his bed to see her asleep in her own. Looking over to the clock he saw it was around 2 AM.

' _I need some fresh air.'_ Michael decided to go outside for a bit. He carefully climbed down the ladder from his bed to the floor and exited to the living room. Closing the door behind him, he went outside.

The sky was beautiful that night. The four lived a bit of a way's out of Inkopolis, far enough for a bit of the sky to be clear at night. Today must've been a good day, as he could make out a few constellations in the sky.

Being out late at night always calmed Michael in a strange way. He couldn't really put it into words but he always seemed at peace being alone in this environment. He loved being with people, sure, and times like this were as equally rewarding with other people with him. But he savored time by himself.

It gave him time to think. Think about his team.

' _I'm going to need to tell them sometime. They deserve to know, as their friend this is something they_ need _to know.'_

' _Later. I need to tell them, but now's not the time.'_ Michael thought, putting the idea on the backburner for now.

A tad bit regretfully, he was going to leave the nice scene outside to get back to sleep. He was about to open the door when he heard something. It was off to the side, but it was distinct. He heard it more, something similar to someone or something shuffling around somewhere. He started to get concerned, as he could almost make out what he thought was a voice.

Against his better judgement, he decided to investigate. He slowly crept to the side of the house. Looking past the corner it created he saw something of a similar shape to him looking through the house's outside garbage cans. Michael definitely heard a voice from it this time.

"Come on, there's has to be something in here. Some leftovers or something…" They were talking to themself, in a hushed voice.

They took in a breath, apparently finding something. "…Yes! I knew I'd find something." The person, who Michael could recognize had a distinctly feminine voice, pulled out a jar of honey. There was apparently a small amount left in the jar, as the person pulled off the cap and did their best to scrape up as much honey on their fingers as they could.

Michael decided to find out who it was. "Hey, you!" He called out, loud enough for her to hear.

She took a sharp breath, slowly turning her head to Michael, giving him a clearer outline of her head. Her hair was mostly localized to her head, making her head appear larger than it was. There was something about her figure and hair style that he recognized, but couldn't pin down due to the lighting. She fully turned towards him, Michael couldn't see much of her due to her standing in the shadow the house cast in their direction.

In a snap movement, she chucked the jar of honey his way and ran like she was being chased by some kind of monster. When she stepped out of the house's shadow Michael could see her fully, if only for a moment.

His spine chilled, he knew all too well what she was.

An Octoling.

* * *

 **Sorry for the long wait, guys. School just started and it's been hard to find time to work on this. I won't be updating as frequently due to School, you can usually expect new chapters to be up on the weekends. (I hope.)**

 **Catch y'all later.**


	8. All-Nighter

Michael _definitely_ wasn't going back to sleep that night. Too much was on his mind.

' _She couldn't have got here from Octo Valley, we have the exit from there on lockdown, so how did she get into Inkopolis?'_ Going over ideas, he finally came to a realization that scared him the most.

' _Either she broke out from jail… or the Octarians have some way to get into Inkopolis.'_ The thought terrified him. Michael didn't _want_ another war. Other Inklings would be happy to get into a battle with the Octarians, but Michael knew better, he knew how painful a full-scale war would be for both sides. He didn't want a repeat of what happened in the last one for the Zapfish, not to Randy, not to Angela, not to Shelly, not to anyone.

He then thought to his friends. He couldn't tell them about this, under any circumstance. He didn't want to bring them into this. He would tell Captain Cuttlefish, and, along with Agents 1 and 2, they would stop the Octarians at the source. They would destroy their route into Inkopolis and stop another war from happening.

Michael then caught himself, _'What if she really was just a lone Octoling who broke out of jail? What if there isn't a secret route from Octo Valley? Am I really just going to come to crazy conclusions like that? No, there's no way we didn't catch them building something like that.'_ It did little to comfort him. He still had to consider the possibility.

If one thing was certain, he wasn't going to get any sleep.

' _Guess I better make some coffee.'_

* * *

Morning came, Randy literally rolled off his bed and planted his fist firmly on his alarm clock, shutting it up. He checked the time.

' _7:45 AM, good, I'm still first to wake up.'_ Randy always took a bit of pride in being a morning person, even if he normally crashed and burned late at night. He didn't really understand Angela or Shelly. For Angela, he didn't understand why she hated mornings so much. To him, morning was the time to be up and at 'em. For Shelly, he didn't see the point in waking up later, that just meant less time to spend in the day.

He got dressed, and exited into the living room to see, to his surprise, Michael slumped over in a chair, his head bobbing erratically. He had seen Angela like this before, she would do this when she was trying to stay awake. Also to his surprise, he was drinking coffee. Then, he realized, that was _Angela's_ coffee. He had to resist the urge to snatch it from his hand and pour it out into the sink.

"Dude, what're you doing?"

"H-Huh? Oh, hey Randy… what's-'sup?"

Michael had the same kind of tone Angela had a lot of the time, the strange stuttering set it off to him that Michael was very, _very_ tired.

"Dude, don't tell me you stayed up all night."

"Oh, y-yeah. I did." Michael's voice was very different from how it was normally. It wasn't completely like Angela's. Randy figured something might've been going on.

"You alright man? You look like a hurricane just destroyed your home."

"Y-Yeah. I'm alright, I think." Even in half-consciousness Michael still knew to keep what he saw last night a secret.

"So, uh, where'd you get the coffee?" Randy really hoped he was wrong and it wasn't Angela's.

"Oh, this? I got it f-from the cupboard, up there." Michael weakly pointed to one of the three highest cupboards in the kitchen. Mystery solved on that one.

"Dude, you know that's Angela's coffee, right?"

"Oh, it is? Is there a problem? I could dump it out now if she has a problem with it." Randy moved his head a bit to see inside the cup, it looked full.

"NO. No. Trust me mate you do _not_ want to deal with her after dumping out her coffee. I'll just give it to her when she wakes up and say that you made it for her."

"Oh, alright." He offered no resistance to Randy taking the mug out of his hand. Randy placed the mug in microwave to heat it up and sat back down at the table with Michael.

"So, why'd you stay up all night?"

Randy could hear Michael's tone shift. "Uh, no reason. Just couldn't get to sleep."

"That so? What'd you do all night?"

"Just watched TV. Nearly fell asleep watching that "Price is Fresh" show."

Randy just decided to not press on him, Michael was tired and needed to get sleep. He stood up and patted Michael on the back.

"Why don't you get some sleep? Staying up's not gonna help 'ya."

"Yeah, right. Thanks. I'll go get to sleep." Michael's voice was slightly slurred, he stumbled a bit as he went to his room.

"Really hope that guy's alright." Randy said to himself.

* * *

"Hey Randy."

"Morning Angela. Mike made you some coffee, it's in the microwave." Randy cocked his head in the kitchen's direction.

"Oh. Awfully nice of 'im."

"Yeah. I think something's bugging him. Stayed up all night."

"Hoo, d'ya get the reason?"

"Nah, he seemed kinda opposed to telling me. I just let it slide."

"I'll ask 'im later. See if I can get him to tell me." Angela got her coffee from the kitchen.

"Good idea. Hope he'll be alright."

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Not like my Daddy back home, worried himself sick over every little thing."

"You've told me."

"Doesn't hurt to say it once in a while."

* * *

 **Hey guys. So remember how I said I'd be uploading these chapters on the weekends? Yeah, there'll be a few exceptions. If I'm really invested in the story I might get one to two chapters done and uploaded earlier in the week. Other than that the schedule should be the same.**


	9. Small Talk

Michael woke up at 4 PM. He was gonna need to get his sleep schedule back on track after today.

Out in the living room Shelly was sitting on the couch watching TV. He decided to sit down with her.

"Hey Shelly."

"Hi."

"What're you watching?"

"Some kind of cartoon. I'm not really paying attention to it."

"Oh."

A silence hung in the air.

"Something's bothering you."

Michael was caught off guard. "Huh? Me? No, not really."

Shelly muted the TV and looked straight at Michael.

"Michael, look. I'm good at recognizing when somebody is being bothered by something. I can tell that you're worrying about something and want someone to talk to you about it."

Michael was at a bit of a loss for words. "I… yeah, you're right. Something's really bothering me."

"You can tell me, if you want."

"Yeah, but… I don't know if I feel comfortable with it."

"That's alright. But I know from experience that telling someone about your problems is better than hiding them."

Michael sat as Shelly turned her attention back to… whatever she was focusing on before. He sat and thought. He came to a conclusion, already breaking his promise to himself.

"Something… happened last night." Shelly almost immediately muted the TV again, she didn't turn her head to him but Michael could tell she was listening.

"I went out in the middle of the night to get some fresh air. I was about to go back inside when I heard something. I went to go check it out and I found someone digging through our trash."

"Sounds like something Randy would do on a dare."

"N-No, it wasn't him. They were looking for food. I got their attention and they ran off after that."

"Is that what's bothering you?"

"No, that's not all of it. The thing is…" Michael paused, contemplating on if he should finish.

"The thing is that when they ran, I saw what they looked like. They weren't just a regular homeless person or anything. They were an Octarian."

Michael glanced over to Shelly, he saw that she had turned her head towards him, her eyes widened.

"Another thing is that, they weren't just a regular Octarian. She was an Octoling. One of the ones that look like us."

"An Octarian? In Inkopolis? How did she get in?" Shelly sounded just as concerned as him.

"I don't know. That's what's bothering me."

"I can see why you stayed up all night. I knew something was wrong but not like this." Shelly sounded genuinely concerned for him. It made Michael smile a bit. It made him happy to know someone was looking out for him.

Michael resumed the conversation. "Do you think I should tell that old Captain Cuttlefish guy about it?"

"Probably. It could help him." Shelly's voice had returned to its usual quiet tone.

"I'll tell him when I get the chance."

"Good." Shelly turned her head back to the TV.

"Um, thank you… for listening."

"You're welcome."

"Uh, one question though. How could you tell something was bothering me?"

"Just a wild guess."

Michael was somehow surprised yet not surprised at all.

* * *

 **Honestly I'm surprised that I was able to finish this today. Then again, the chapters are pretty short most of the time, aren't they?**


	10. Light Sleeper

The following day, Michael left the house.

Though not exactly by himself.

Not wanting to be seen, Michael put on a sweatshirt to hopefully give him a low profile. He wanted to get to Captain Cuttlefish, tell him about the Octoling, and get back to the house. He woke up early to try and get it done before anyone else woke up, and it would've worked well.

If not for Angela.

For how much she hated waking up, Angela was, ironically enough, a light sleeper. And Michael accidentally tripping over a misplaced chair, didn't do well to keep her asleep.

Angela stumbled out of her room quick enough to see Michael leave the house in a hurry.

"What in Sam Hill…"

Even if her mind didn't work correctly, she still found the situation weird enough to try and follow Michael.

"I swear if he ends up stealing somethin'…"

Following Michael, she soon found herself in central Inkopolis, approaching the main tower. She watched in worry as Michael scanned the area and then transformed into his squid form. He then jumped down a large drain that sat in front of the tower.

Angela was kind of taken aback, she always wondered what was up with the drain, and now she was even more confused about it.

' _What business does Michael have going down there?'_

Reluctantly, she followed Michael down the drain.

She was successful in halting herself before she went through the bottom. She slowly set her feet at the bottom and put her ear to get a clearer take on what was going on.

She heard Michael.

"Hey, Captain Cuttlefish."

' _Captain Cuttlefish? Isn't he that old guy who helped in both wars?'_

"Oh, good morning Michael! Long time no see."

"Yeah, long time no see. Um, I'm sorry but I can't really stay long, I just needed to tell you something really important." Michael's voice had a sort of no-nonsense tone to it, which was pretty out of the ordinary with how Michael usually was.

"Oh, this sounds serious. Well tell me, lad, what is it?"

"I'll cut to the chase, I saw an Octarian in Inkopolis the other day."

' _An Octarian? Here?'_

"An Octarian! Michael, tell me, did you see any others?"

"No, just the one, sir. It wasn't just a regular Octarian either, it was an Octoling."

"My god. Michael, do you have any idea what they might be doing in Inkopolis?"

"That is what I came to ask you, sir. I don't have much of an idea myself."

"Hm. Well, there's not much we can go off of just one Octoling. She may just be some delinquent who broke out of jail. Michael, I want you to report any other sightings of Octarians in Inkopolis straight to me. I'd appreciate if you could give Agents 1 and 2 a call about this too. I don't get much reception to the rest of Inkopolis down here."

"Of course, captain. May I take my leave?"

"Of course. Stay safe."

"Goodbye, captain."

Angela's heart nearly sank when she realized Michael was heading back into Inkopolis. She rapidly turned back into a full squid and swam up the drain pipe as fast as she could, just barely jumping out before Michael rocketed out of the pipe. He started to make his way back to the house, looking around to make sure nobody was around.

* * *

Angela was lucky, Michael only walked back to the house, allowing her to get back quicker and jump back into her bed before Michael was even feasibly able to realize she had followed him.

She tried her best to get back to sleep. She could only relax when she heard Michael's gentle footsteps into the house and back into his bed.

Finally, the curtains rolled in on her consciousness.

* * *

Angela woke up even later than she normally did that day. She found Randy sitting on the couch, watching TV as he always did in the morning.

"Hey Randy."

"Yo."

"Hey, uh, Randy. Can I ask you somethin'? It's about Michael."

"Uh, sure." He took note to turn the TV's volume down. "What's up?"

"He's been actin' kinda weird lately, d'ya know why?"

"No, not really. Why do you ask?"

"Well, uh…" Angela held on to the last word, she didn't feel entirely willing to give up what she heard last night but she felt like she had to tell _someone_ about it. "…last night Michael left the house in the middle of the night. He woke me up on accident and, well, I decided to follow him and…"

"Before you go any further with this, does this end with you finding out something kinky about Michael?"

"No, it doesn't and I'd appreciate not having to relocate your jaw again because you can't keep yer damn snarky remarks to yerself."

"Alright, alright. Sorry."

"No, no, I'm sorry. It's just that I just woke up and last night got me thinkin'. So, I started following him, and we end up in Inkopolis' plaza, and he goes and jumps down that one big drainage pipe in front of the tower. So I follow him in there and when I get to the bottom I find he's talkin' to that old coot, Captain Cuttlefish."

"What business does Michael have with that guy?"

"Apparently Michael works for him. He kept using all this formal talk like calling him 'Sir' or 'Captain'. So, apparently, Michael saw an Octarian in Inkopolis and he's all shook up about it."

"An Octarian? Here? What in the…"

"Yeah, same thought I had. Cuttlefish also told Michael to tell this to some people named 'Agents 1 and 2', whoever those are."

"You know… this is making me think. I've had this suspicion since we met him but I just kinda brushed it off."

"What is it?"

"What if, our Michael is really the same Michael who saved Inkopolis in the war last year?"

The thought surprised Angela. "I… haven't considered that. Hell, maybe our buddy has a more exciting life than we ever thought."

"Yeah. But, man, how do we approach him about this?"

"Why don't we just ask him?"

Randy scoffed "Yeah, that'll work. 'Hey Michael, Angela followed you around last night and we think you're a war hero.' Won't work in the slightest."

Angela elbowed Randy in the arm.

"What? It's true. If he hasn't told us yet why would asking him about it so upfront-like get him to tell us now? He's probably hiding it from us for a reason."

"I hate to admit it, but you're right. We're gonna have to think of a way to get him to tell us."

"Well, time will tell, I guess."


	11. Three Against One

Shelly had overheard Randy and Angela.

"So, I guess you figured it too, Randy."

Angela and Randy turned their heads towards Shelly.

"Shell? Did you… hear everything we just said?" Randy asked.

"Yeah, I did."

"So, wait, you figured that Michael was in the war too?"

"Yeah. He told me about something the other day that really made me believe it."

"What was that?"

"He told me about the Octoling he saw, I was able to see in his face that he was really concerned about it."

"And you figured he was in the war from that? How?" Angela asked.

"He looks similar to the Michael from the war, him being really scared about an Octoling was all I really needed to figure it out."

"Have you ever considered going to law school? You could make a hardened criminal sweat bullets with deduction skills like those."

"Randy, you and I both know nothing's set in stone yet about this, for all we know this could all just be a huge set of coincidences." Angela put in.

"Yeah, keep sayin' that, and maybe it'll be true." Randy took a sip of a soda can he had popped open. "C'mon Angela you can't possibly think this is all a huge coincidence, not with how much evidence we've got."

"I'd like there to be at least one person who's skeptical about this, and I'd like that person to be me."

"So does that mean you don't even believe your own words, and you're just saying that stuff because you "think" someone should think it?" Randy chuckled.

"Well, I… Alright I'll admit that it ain't the easiest thing denying it, but there's more than just two opinions on this."

"No there isn't, you either think he was in the war or not, there's not much of a gray area here."

"Well either way, arguing about it ain't gonna solve a damn thing."

"Now that's something I can agree with."

Angel and Randy, in the middle of their small disagreement, hadn't even noticed that Shelly had called Michael.

"Yeah, I need to talk to you about something, can you come over quick? Yeah, Randy and Angela are here. Alright, thanks."

Shelly ended the call after Michael agreed. She looked over to Angela and Randy.

"You called him about this!?"

"Yep."

"When we were going to try and plan out a way to get him to tell us!?"

"Mhm."

Angela and Randy just sat in silence before both uttering "Why!?" in unison.

"You two would've been too busy getting mad over small arguments for you to actually formulate a coherent plan."

Angela and Randy looked at each other and back at Shelly, with a defeated look that said 'Yeah, I guess you're right.'

* * *

"Uh, sorry guys, but I gotta leave. A friend of mine needs to talk." Michael said to his brothers-in-arms. Though with how the situation was they were more aptly named "Sisters-in-arms".

Michael was able to catch up with Agents 1 and 2 during their down time, they may have been working with Captain Cuttlefish, but when they weren't busy with that, they spent time being the Squid Sisters, the biggest musical sensations in Inkopolis, Callie and Marie.

"Aww, but you just got here! C'mon, Mikey, can't you hang out a while?" Callie said, a bit disappointedly.

"I'm really sorry but I don't want to ditch my friends if there's something important to talk about."

Marie cut in. "We understand, you can go, we need to get back on stage soon anyways." She leaned in close to speak out of Callie's hearing range. "Don't mind Callie, she's just really _excited_ to see you again." Marie winked at Michael before going back to a neutral position. "But thanks for telling us about the Octoling, we'll keep a watch out for her."

"Yup, you can count on us!"

"Thanks guys, I'll see you around."

* * *

Michael got home quickly to see Randy and Angela sitting on the couch watching TV and Shelly sitting at the table reading a book.

Angela noticed him. "Hey, welcome back, how'd it go with those friends of yours?"

"It went fine, was nice to see them again. So, uh, Shelly, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

Shelly put in a nearby pencil as a makeshift bookmark and closed her book. "I think Angela would like to talk first."

All eyes rested on Angela. "So, uh… damn this ain't gonna be easy but here goes. Michael, last night I woke up and saw you leaving the house. So, um, I… followed you."

Michael's face turned much paler than it should have and his blood cooled to icy temperatures for a brief moment. "O-Oh, did you?" He tried his best to hide his nervousness but only succeeded in making it more prevalent.

"Yeah I did, and, uh, Shelly told us about the Octarian you saw."

Michael glanced at Shelly for a brief moment, making eye contact. She had a guilty look on her face, obviously not feeling good about giving away what Michael told her, now that Angela brought it up to him. She didn't want to hold his gaze much longer and turned her head towards the TV.

"And, uh, we wanted to ask, why did you go tell that old Cuttlefish guy before you told us?"

' _Oh no.'_ She had heard him talking to Captain Cuttlefish, calling him 'Sir' and 'Captain', his cover was blown.

Michael stammered a bit, trying to push words together to form a lie. But upon the fourth moment of silence, he gave up.

"Give me a second." He said in a quiet tone. He was devastated, not just about his cover being blown, but even moreso about thinking how they'd treat him now that they knew. They knew everything about him being a hero of a war. Of course things would change, he knew they would after this.

He had to mentally fight himself to keep from breaking down right then and there.


	12. Long Life Ahead of Us

"I'm sorry."

Michael was seated in a chair, Angela and Randy were keeping their gazes on him. Shelly was looking everywhere except at Michael.

"I'm sorry for hiding this from you, from all of you. I just thought that, if I hid it, I could be able to keep a steady friendship with all of you." He bitterly chuckled. "I guess that dream's over, huh?" Michael quickly wiped the wetness that was forming on his eyes.

Angela cut in. "No, you got it all wrong Mikey, we're not gonna think differently of you just because you were in a war, and you're still a good person and…"

Michael interrupted. "No, you don't understand, no matter what, all of you finding this out has caused a big difference in how you all see me. None of you will think of me the same way, you're all going to change the way you behave around me because I saved Inkopolis, you'll all see me as some kind of big hero that deserves to be worshipped. You won't be friends anymore at that point, you'll just be followers. And I don't want any of you to live like that!" Michael didn't care that his face was getting redder and redder, or that his eyes overflowed with tears, he just couldn't find the strength to care about those things at this moment.

Angela couldn't respond, Randy just sat, taking his gaze off of Michael and putting it to the floor, he was trying to come up with something to say, to counter Michael's argument.

Michael then looked to Shelly, in that moment, he felt like he _wanted_ to hate her, he _wanted_ to resent her for telling Randy and Angela.

But he couldn't. She didn't deserve that.

Because in that moment where Michael wanted to think she was the most evil person in the world, he saw possibly the most genuine guilt he's ever seen in someone's eyes, even if they were clouded up, as he wasn't the only one who was crying.

A silence hung between the four for what seemed like an eternity. Until Shelly spoke up.

"I can understand Michael's point of view. None of us have any idea what it was like to be in a war. I think... I think that Michael's right. We are going to see him differently after this. Anybody would." Everyone set their eyes on her as she spoke. "But… that doesn't mean we can't stay friends. Michael, we may see you as a different person after this, but that doesn't mean we're going to see you as a worse person. We'll see you as a better one." Shelly stood up and walked towards Michael. She crouched down to be at eye level with him. "And just because you're a great hero, doesn't mean we won't see you as one of us, we won't worship you or mindlessly follow you around. We're going to stay by your side, as you would ours. And we're going to help you live a happy life." She smiled "It's the least I can do for spilling out your secret."

Michael looked to Angela and Randy, who both nodded slightly to show they would follow suit.

Looking back to Shelly, he still saw her smiling at him.

And he smiled back.

"Thank you."

Shelly stood up straight, followed by Angela and Randy. Shelly reached out a hand to help Michael up, who took the offer gladly.

A moment of silence spread over the four friends.

"It'll be tough, but we'll work it out." Angela said.

"Yeah, who cares if you're a hero or not? You're still my best mate." Randy continued.

Shelly simply smiled.

Michael, having been driven into the ground with sadness just a moment ago, was helped back up by his friends.

And by the great Kraken in the sky, he'd stay that way.

"Now, what do you guys say we go out to eat, my treat." Randy offered.

The other three agreed, getting dressed as quickly as they could and heading out, chatting the time away.

* * *

"Okay, no, you're just completely wrong there, Marie is clearly better than Callie." Randy said.

"What're you talkin' about? Callie's so full of energy all the time, I love her!" Angela responded.

"Yeah but Marie's so much more hot! And to top it off, she's got a great sense of humor."

"If you actually thought with your head up here and not the other one, you'd know that you were wrong."

"Hey, c'mon, gimme a break." The two chuckled at each other, all in good fun.

The day was clear, not a single cloud in the sky. The group was sitting outside of Inkopolis' café that rested in the plaza. Shelly was busy with her drink, Angela and Randy were so preoccupied with arguing that Michael wondered if their drinks would even be a quarter of the way done by the end of the day. As for Michael, he simply took in the sights, loving to be able to relax in the plaza with his friends. After how emotionally taxing the day had been, it was, to say the least, nice to be like this.

Looking to the streets he noticed something off. A manhole cover was popped off, slid a slight bit to the side. He decided to take his mind off of it, thinking it to be of no importance.

* * *

When the group left, it was nearing nighttime, the plaza wasn't as populated as it was when they arrived, everyone was going back home as they were. Michael suddenly remembered the manhole cover, he looked back to it, still slid off to the side.

And then, for the briefest of moments, Michael could have sworn he saw a dark purplish color come from it. He blinked twice to clear out his eyes, the light was gone.

' _Must've just been my eyes.'_ Michael thought.

The group returned home and retired for the night. The day had been an unusual one, and one that tired them out. Everyone went to sleep quickly.


	13. The Other Side

Underneath Inkopolis.

0100 hours.

While the days for the Inklings above ended, their day was just beginning.

They had to complete their routine, go out and scavenge for materials or food, steal them, if necessary. They needed a restock, they couldn't feed as many people as there were with what they had left.

"Junko, what's the status outside?"

"Empty, the shops aren't 24/7, thankfully, so we can probably get something from them."

"What about the security cameras?"

"What do you mean? We can just block them out like we've done before."

"Right."

"Go tell Ken about this, we'll split up into two different groups, one for food and one for materials, we're probably gonna need some maintenance on our guns soon."

"Roger."

Junko kept watch. Her vantage point wasn't the best, admittedly, as it was in the middle of Inkopolis' plaza, but it had been working for the past few months.

Junko slid down the ladder when her partner signaled her, making sure to cover the entrance back up.

Ken was standing at the bottom, Junko waited for his plan.

"Junko, we're going to send you out with Rin, you two are going to find as much food as you can, this is top priority."

"Right." She glanced to the girl standing beside Ken. Rin had never been one Junko liked to work with, but she needed to get some cooperation going between them, their mission was of the utmost importance.

After readying their weapons, Junko and Rin climbed up the ladder and exited into hostile territory.

The night was still. The moon was not visible, clouds had rolled in, obscuring its light. The two had to turn on the night vision on their goggles. They pulled out their weapons. Junko signaled to Rin on where to go, who followed without question.

The two were able to get to a restaurant, this one had been marked as a valuable site, their first raid on the place went perfectly, giving everyone enough food to last for a while. They went to it first, hoping to have as easy of a time as they did before. They were successful in picking the back door open.

Ever so slowly they walked into the restaurant. Junko did multiple takes around the place until she spotted a security camera, thankfully, they were out of its line of sight. Junko hand signaled its presence. Rin nodded and brought out a suppressor for her gun and attached it. When the camera was pointing away, Rin took aim and shot. The ink fired caught onto the camera's lens, blinding it.

The two passed the camera and entered into the main kitchen. Rin caught sight of another camera and blinded it as well. Signaling to Junko, the two continued on to the storage room.

Junko hushed her voice when speaking "I'll go find the freezer, you get as much food as you can from here. Make sure to get some salt so we can keep the meat fresh."

Rin nodded knowingly, the two split up.

As Rin pulled out a trash bag and grabbed food off of the shelves, Junko got to the back of the storage room. Finding the freezer, she opened it up. The cool air drifting out in a cloud, making Junko shiver. She spent as little time as was possible in there, her clothing not helping her stay warm. She lifted up multiple small boxes of packaged meat. When she was done, she saw that Rin had a nearly full bag of food. She handed Junko a box of multiple salt containers.

The two got out of the restaurant as quickly as they could, making sure to keep as low of a profile as they could. Their hearts nearly jumped out of their throats multiple times when the occasional Inkling who was out late walked by.

* * *

Arriving at the entrance, Junko tapped on the cover with her foot, in a pattern that gave permission to enter. The Octoling who popped open the cover took the boxes and climbed down ahead of Junko and Rin. Rin, finally fitting her bag into the shaft, slid the cover back over.

At the bottom the Octoling handed Junko the boxes of food back. Ken was waiting as the bottom.

Addressing Junko and Rin he said "Good work you two. You've helped a lot of people today. Take the food to the main room, please."

In the main room, Junko saw what she could never get used to seeing.

Tons of Octarians sat in the large expanse, their clothes dirtied, many were sick. There were whole families, the parents worried if their children would continue in the conditions. These were the ones who didn't continue following DJ Octavio after his defeat, they were run out of Octo Valley, forced to live with everyone else right under their enemy's noses, with only the ones who stayed faithful to Octavio being allowed to stay.

Junko and Rin gave tonight's findings to the resource managers, who began passing around the food in equal quantities to all of the individuals. After eating, many came over to thank the two for their work, calling them saints. Junko simply nodded in response to the praise.

Living here wasn't easy, but making everyone's nights better helped Junko to keep going.

' _One day.'_ She thought, _'One day we'll be able to get out of here, everyone's lives will be better then. All the trouble will be worth it.'_

* * *

 **Three new chapters in one day, that's something unusual, isn't it?**


	14. Reconaissance

**Hey guys! What's up?**

 **I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who participated in submitting ideas, I appreciate it a lot.**

 **Without further adieu, let's get this story going again.**

* * *

Two weeks later…

"Hey Shelly, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?"

Michael was sitting at the living room's table, eating while Shelly read a book.

"Do you think we should try and find that Octoling I saw a few days ago?"

"Maybe, do you think she'd be able to give up information?"

"Well, the funny thing is that during the war Captain Cuttlefish actually taught me how to interrogate someone. I think I could get something out of her."

"Really now?" Shelly chuckled. "I'd like to see that."

"What? You don't think I'd be able to do it?"

"No, I just think Randy would fit that role better."

"Oh come on, who was the one that was in a war?"

"True, true."

The two had a moment of light laughter.

"No, but really, do you think we'd even be able to find her? She's probably skipped to the next city by now."

"I don't think you know how big Inkopolis really is, Michael. If she's going by foot she's not going to be to the next city for at least a few more days."

"Right. But where do you think we should look? I doubt she'd be ballsy enough to come here again."

"Don't know. Have you heard about any crimes recently?"

"I heard about that one huge restaurant down near the plaza being stolen from twice."

"She might've done it."

"You really think so?"

"Maybe, if she's running around digging through trash cans trying to find food she'd probably steal from a big restaurant like that one."

"That's reasonable. Well, when I get the time I guess I'll go with Cuttlefish and try and find her."

"I'm going with you."

"Oh, uh, you sure?"

"I can aim a gun, and I have a gun that fires really far. I can help you guys if someone tries and get you from behind."

"Oh, um, alright then. Thank you."

"It's no problem."

The two sat in a silence, neither of them really feeling the need to continue the conversation any further.

Randy burst into the door soon after.

"Hey, Mike, Cuttlefish is here. He wants to talk with you."

Michael looked to Shelly who had looked up from her book. He got up from his chair and went outside, with Randy and Shelly following him. Angela stood outside with Cuttlefish.

"Captain Cuttlefish?"

"Oh, Michael, my boy, there you are!"

"You wanted to talk with me, sir?"

"Oh, yes. Agents 1 and 2 just reported in, they say they've been hearing some rumors going around the plaza. Apparently some youngsters saw a pair of Octolings leaving the back door to a restaurant a couple of weeks before. Have you heard about this?"

"I can't say I have. What else did they say?"

"Well, 1 and 2 said they investigated and found that the restaurant that they were seen leaving had been robbed before."

Michael had a feeling of Déjà vu for a moment.

"Is there anything else they were able to find out?"

"The two were able to link this to a recent robbery of Ammo Knights, but that's all they were able to find."

Michael took a moment before responding.

"Alright. Tell Agents 1 and 2 that I'll be seeing them shortly, and that I'm bringing company."

Michael turned to his friends.

"Ready your weapons guys, it's Octoling season."


	15. Old Wounds

"So, Michael, let me just get this straight, before anything else… You work with the Squid Sisters?"

Angela, Randy, and Shelly hadn't been informed of Agents 1 or 2 before, they assumed they'd be other guys like Michael, not the most popular idol duo in the city.

"Uh, yeah. I guess I didn't mention it because I didn't see much of a point to it."

Callie cut in, throwing her arm over Michael's shoulder. "Yep! We've been working with Mikey since last year's war. Let me tell you guys, he was amazing back then, he took down the Octarian's leader almost entirely by himself!"

Ignoring the praise Michael turned his attention to Marie. "So, Marie, Cuttlefish said you two found out some stuff about a couple of Octolings?"

"Yeah. We looked into the restaurant that the Octolings had been seen leaving and found that it had been stolen from twice. Apparently the police found that all the security cameras had been blocked out, too. We think they're most likely getting food since their rations might be low."

"Where do you think they might be hiding?" Shelly asked.

"That, we don't know. We're still trying to figure that out."

"Hmm…" Shelly stayed in silence for a moment before continuing. "Do you think we could keep a vigil going over-night? The Octolings are likely to only operate in the dark, a few of us could keep watch to see if they come out tonight."

"I was thinking the same thing. I like the way you think, Shelly. But we're going to need enough people to go in a rotation, nobody wants to stay up all night. Which is why Callie and I are going with you. We'll change in groups of two."

"I call working with Mikey!" Callie put in.

"Alright then. Angela, Randy, do you two wanna work together?"

Both just nodded in response.

"Well, guess you're with me, Shelly."

"Right."

* * *

"You kids stay safe now, vigils aren't as easy as they sound." The group had gone into Octo Valley to get Callie and Marie's weapons from Cuttlefish, the Krak-on Roller and the Kelp Splatterscope, respectively.

"Don't worry, gramps, we will." Callie responded.

"I know you will."

"Hey, uh, Cuttlefish, there's something I wanna ask." Randy said.

"What's your question, son?"

"Well, if Callie and Marie are Agents 1 and 2, and Mike's Agent 3, are there any more agents?"

Randy could have almost felt the tension that rose up after the question. Callie shifted her eyes uneasily, Marie bit her lip, and Cuttlefish's eyes had widened for a moment. Looking over to Michael, who had been pacing around, Randy saw he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Well… there was an Agent 4 but…"

Michael had launched himself out of the valley.

"Look, son, I can't tell you about them. It's a very touchy subject. Especially for Michael. If you want him to be on his game you'd best not bring it up around him."

"Did… did something happen to them?"

"Didn't I just say that I can't tell you about them!?" Cuttlefish's surprisingly harsh tone surprised everyone. He sighed before continuing. "Sorry, but, it'd be better if you don't bring it up again."

"…Alright."

A silence hung for a tense moment.

"Just, get going, you'll want to be out before it gets dark, don't want the Octolings to get out before you do."

"Yeah, sure. Let's go, guys." The team left the valley one-by-one.

* * *

Michael was found sitting on a bench in the plaza.

"Hey, you alright, Mike?"

"Oh, hey Randy. Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure? You don't sound like it."

"Yeah, I'm sure. It's just that, well… No, I don't think I should tell you."

"Why not?"

"It's… it's not important. I'll tell you some other time, yeah?"

"C'mon Michael, you should know that keeping these kinda things secret ain't healthy."

"I know, Randy. I know. But, please, can I just keep this one secret? Even just for a little while more? I promise I'll tell you when I'm ready."

"…Yeah, sure, man. I understand."

"Thanks." Michael looked to the sky. "We should get going, it's almost night."

"Yeah, let's go."


	16. Vigilant

The team of six set up on top of a building. Their little campsite overlooked the restaurant that had been robbed. Nobody really thought the Octolings would hit up that place again, but fortunately it looked over other smaller restaurants. Hopefully, they would choose to hit the other places.

Marie and Shelly decided to be the first two to keep watch. They would switch out with Angela and Randy in three hours. They began keeping watch at 11 PM. The night was still, the only sounds were the occasional car driving across the roads.

Shelly yawned and looked back. Marie was still looking through her scope. The rest were sleeping. Callie had an arm slung over Michael, Randy slept leaning his back against a raised wall and Angela had fallen asleep while cleaning out the barrel on her gun.

Shelly took in a deep breath, the air of the mid-Autumn night cooled her insides. She looked at the stars in the sky and she thought about her situation.

' _I can't believe I'm really on a mission like this. It feels so surreal.'_ Shelly had never really imagined herself going on something like this. She thought her experience with battle would be limited to Turf Wars. It felt weird using her gun for something other than covering up the ground and walls of an arena but nonetheless she'd keep steadfast and would carry out her role.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Marie shooting.

* * *

Inkopolis.

0125 hours.

Junko and Rin had once again been assigned to get food. They decided to not go to the restaurant they had went to two weeks before. They found a different restaurant close by, it was smaller but it was good enough.

The two made their way through the darkened city, their senses heightened for any incoming danger. They slowly sneaked across the streets and alleyways until they were close to the restaurant.

Suddenly, Junko was knocked down as Rin had tackled her.

"Rin, what are you doing!?"

"Look up there!"

"Rrgh! Missed my shot!" Marie grumbled. "Shelly, go wake up the rest!"

Shelly quickly shifted everyone awake.

"Michael! Take everyone with you down there! Shelly and I will help you!"

Michael nodded, swimming down the ink path Shelly had shot across the wall for him, followed by Angela, Callie, and Randy.

"Dammit! We've been spotted, defend yourself!" Rin yelled out to Junko.

The two pulled out their guns, Rin trying her best to take out Marie and Shelly while Junko fended off the four that had risen before them. Callie zig-zagged towards the two, doing her best to avoid the volleys of ink being sent her way. Angela did the best she could to support her advance, throwing down a Splash Wall to suppress Junko's incoming fire.

Shelly inked paths for Michael and Randy to take, they both rose up close to the two Octolings and began firing. Randy's Heavy Splatling hit few of its shots, Michael used his Splattershot to cover up for Randy's missed ink volleys.

Rin was still in a clumsy battle with Marie, being able to dodge Marie's shots but not hit her own, she'd need to be able to get to higher ground. She quickly surveyed the area, they were taking fire from all sides, and Callie was rapidly approaching and would flatten them both if they didn't get out of there quick. She turned to the building behind her and fired up the wall, she grabbed Junko by the wrist and dragged her into the ink.

Marie and Shelly were quicker than they were, though, shooting two splotches of their own Ink in front of and behind the two Octolings as they were swimming in their own. Surfacing would mean being put into the middle of enemy fire, but not surfacing meant the two of them being sniped. Rin thought quickly, communicating to Junko underneath the ink. The two jumped out and both threw down Splat Bombs below them, causing Michael, Angela, Randy, and Callie to scatter, just barely making it out before the bombs blasted apart.

Rin inked a path up the building Marie and Shelly stood upon, taking advantage of the confusion caused by the bombs. She and Junko swam up and took the two snipers by surprise, knocking Marie off the building. Shelly quickly shot ink below Marie to stop her fall. Marie landed in the ink and jumped out. Quickly taking aim at the Octolings as they put the pressure on Shelly, who had begun defending herself by rapidly throwing down Burst Bombs.

Marie took aim and fired. The volley hit Junko in the side of her head, knocking her down.

Rin noticed she had lost support and had to decide between helping her or abandoning her and the fight, it was her against six others, there was no way she would be able to fend them all off.

Rin decided on the latter. She turned, and ran, jumping off the building and landing in a puddle of ink she had shot down. Shelly tried to get a shot in but Rin had swam out of view. She lowered her E-Liter and walked to the edge of the building.

"One of them got away! Marie was able to get this one though, be sure to catch her." Shelly dragged Junko across the floor and tossed her over the edge of the building, where Randy caught her. Shelly followed and jumped down in to a puddle of ink she had shot on the ground.

"We should probably tie her up. Does Cuttlefish have any rope?" Angela asked the Squid Sisters.

"Yeah, we'll take her to gramps to get her restrained, we can question her when she wakes up." Marie responded.

The team, now with Junko as prisoner, made their way back to Octo Valley.


	17. Interrogation

The team stayed in Octo valley over-night, it was morning now, and Junko was just waking up.

"Ngh…"

"Oh good, you're up."

Junko opened her eyes and looked around, the place was familiar, they were hanging over a large canyon, and looking into the distance she saw a distinctly huge rock formation. She realized that she was in Octo valley.

She didn't see who had spoken to her, and looked around some more. Soon, a figure turned a corner.

It was Michael.

"I was wondering when you were going to come back from sleeping."

"Why did you take me here?"

"Hm?" Michael was a bit surprised at the Octoling asking a question so quickly.

"I said, why did you take me here?"

"What? Octo valley? This is your home, isn't it?"

Junko refused to answer.

"Well, it's not important either way, what I want to know is, why were you trying to steal from a restaurant, you have enough food here in Octo valley, don't you?"

Still no response.

"Furthermore, why did you come up to the surface anyways? It'd be much safer if you had just stayed down here with all of your friends."

"Don't lump me in with those scum-sucking wastes of space, they've done more evil than you could imagine me doing."

"And why is that?"

Junko turned her head away and didn't answer.

"Well, if you're going to be like that." Michael reached around the corner and grabbed something. He brought it into view and set it next to Junko.

It was a cup of coffee.

"What's this?"

"It's coffee, ever heard of it?"

"I mean why are you giving me this."

"You just woke up didn't you?"

Junko was expecting to be tortured in some way by making her have to tell him something first before he gave her the coffee, but was utterly shocked when Michael went behind her and loosened her binds up to allow her to pick up the coffee.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Loosening your bindings, what does it look like?"

"Why?"

"I gave you a cup of coffee, didn't I? Besides, I don't think you'll do much harm to us, we have your weapon hidden somewhere safe."

Junko sat still before even moving. She slowly moved her hand to the cup and just as slowly brought it to her mouth and took a sip, never keeping her eyes off Michael at the same time.

"You really like looking at me, don't you?" Michael decided to tease her a bit.

"I'm watching for any funny business."

Michael didn't respond any further, it didn't seem like he would be getting any answers from her. He leaned back to make his voice go around the corner.

"You're up, Shelly." Michael walked back as Shelly came in. She pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Junko.

The two held each other's stares for a long moment.

"Something happened to you." Shelly said suddenly.

"What?"

"Something happened to you. I can tell. There were other Octarians involved, weren't there?"

Sweat beaded Junko's forehead. The Inkling's ability to deduct things just from that disturbed her. Nonetheless she stayed silent.

"You're sweating. That is what happened, isn't it?"

' _Dammit.'_

"Just tell me, you'll be better once you do so."

Junko kept her mouth shut and continued to stare at Shelly, hoping, praying for some change in her reaction. But Shelly kept a blank face the entire time. Junko couldn't tell if she was being threatened or not, and eventually she cracked.

"Alright… I'll tell you, just, please, stop staring at me like that."

Shelly's expression softened and she gave a thumbs up to the others around the corner.

* * *

"And that's how the other Octarians and I ended up here."

Junko had finished her explanation and looked to the small crowd that had formed around her as she was telling her story. There were many different faces, some sympathetic, some skeptical, and some utterly surprised.

Cuttlefish was the first to speak. "That is certainly a story I haven't heard before. I suppose you've been stealing from the restaurants to feed the families who are with you?"

"Yes, that's correct."

Randy spoke up next. "I'm sorry but I'm finding this a little hard to believe, how do we really know there are other Octarians than you and that partner of yours?"

Junko grew angered. "Do you really expect me to tell you all where we're hiding? I'm not going to risk putting our civilians in danger, especially not in the condition that they're in!"

"Well I'm not believing the word of one lone Octoling, I'm going to need some actual proof."

"We don't need her to tell us where they are." Shelly whispered to Randy.

"What do you mean?"

"If we end up letting her go, we're going to have one person follow her on her way back to their hideout, we'll know where they are then."

Junko couldn't hear what Shelly had said, but she knew one thing, she had to get back to the hideout.

"Please, just let me get back to them, if we don't get food soon they're going to starve."

"Whoever your commander is will send out a different team to collect food tonight. Don't worry, we're not going to stop them. And we're not letting you go until you tell us more info." Marie said.

"That's all I have to tell, I swear!"

"No it isn't, I know you have something else that you're keeping to yourself. Tell us what it is and we'll let you go."

Junko thought about the offer. She did know something. She had to think about what would happen if she told them. On one hand, the Octarians who stayed in Octo Valley would hunt down the hideout and show no mercy to anyone inside. But…

"Alright… I'll tell you."

"Good."

Junko took a moment before speaking.

"About a month before Octavio was defeated, some Octarian scientists began working on something. It was described as being a trump card that would help the Octarians win the war, but development on it was halted when Octavio was overthrown. At least, it was halted. Before we were run out of Octo Valley, which was only a month after Octavio lost, development resumed. The last I heard of it before I was run out was that it had begun testing, and that they had a few test subjects."

"Who were these test subjects?" Marie questioned.

"Nobody outside of the facility where it was developed knew for sure, but there were rumors that they..." Junko cut herself off, not wanting to incur any anger from her interrogators.

"That they what?"

"There were rumors that they were using captured Inklings as test subjects."

The statement brought out horrified reactions from the crowd.

Michael's voice grew serious. "What facility is this?"

"It's called the Presidio. It's a heavily guarded military facility, where new weapons for the Octarians are developed. Its existence is hidden from civilians. And Octarians like me who are low-ranking aren't allowed in. We only get information about what's going on in it from the occasional Elite Octoling."

Nobody had a response, they all had to take time to process the information they just received.

Michael spoke first. "We're going there."

"Don't! You don't know what goes on in there!"

"Don't try to talk me out of it, you don't know what goes on in it either. Besides, I'm a hero to Inkopolis, I feel like it's a duty of mine to help the Inklings that are being held up in there."

"Please, think this through, you're risking the lives of so many Inklings in an attempt to rescue a few. If the Octarians know that the Presidio has been found by Inklings, they may go on an all-out assault on Inkopolis."

"How bad could their weaponry be? There was nothing I couldn't handle all by myself in the last war. And think of this, if they truly are constructing something that could have won them the war while we had them cornered, if we can shut down the testing and development of it, we'd be able to prevent another Great Turf War before it even started."

"…Fine. But you're not going to find a way to the Presidio without the help of an Octarian." Junko breathed in. "I'm going with you."

Michael was surprised at her willingness to help. "Alright."

Angela grabbed Michael's shoulder. "Now, hold on there, Mikey, don't think just the two of you are going. We're coming too."

Michael looked to his team.

"We're not letting you go into Octarian territory without at least a few more people." Randy said.

Shelly continued. "We'll do our best."

"Yeah! We'll crush those Octarians and break their dumb weapons!" Callie excitedly said.

"We're at our best when we're a team. We'll have each other's backs in this." Marie concluded.

Michael grinned at his friends. "Right."

"You kids stay safe now. You're going deep into enemy territory."

"We will, Captain."

Cuttlefish pat Michael on the back and smiled. "I know you will, son. I know."

"I'm going back to the hideout, I need to ready up. We leave for the Presidio in one week." Junko said as she stood up.

"Right. We'll train hard during that time. See you soon."

Junko nodded and turned towards the kettle that lead back to the surface.

"Oh, wait! Before you go. You never told us your name."

"Junko. My name's Junko."

"Right, we'll see you in a week, Junko."

Junko waved goodbye as she launched herself back to the surface.

"Do you think it was such a good idea to let her leave during the day?" Randy asked Michael.

"Probably not."


	18. Michael

_**6 days until the Presidio…**_

Michael was anxious about the coming week. He had been confident in raiding the Presidio the other day, but now he wasn't so sure. The team of seven would have to first find where the facility was, and then infiltrate it, then free the Inklings that might be held up there, and finally shut down the development of whatever it was the Octarians were working on. That wasn't even mentioning the large number of Octarians that no doubt patrolled the place.

Michael laid on the couch in the house, staring at the ceiling. He tried his best to process his thoughts and think up a plan, but with how uncertain everything about the Presidio was, he couldn't. Even Junko seemed to know barely anything about the place.

Hopefully, they were prepared.

Michael began thinking, why had he even wanted to do the raid in the first place? What was it that set off a desire to save the Inklings in there? Of course, he wanted to help them. But that wasn't all.

At the moment when Junko mentioned that Inklings were rumored to be test subjects, he thought, for just a moment, that he might get to the bottom of what had plagued his mind since the war.

Maybe, just maybe, he might find _her._

But that was wishful thinking, Michael wasn't even sure himself if that was why he joined in, or if she was even still... around.

As much as it pained him to remember it, he grabbed his phone out of his pocket. He'd had it for a few years, but no matter what he'd never throw it away.

He tapped the screen and scrolled through different pages of things he had installed. On the fourth page, he found the phone's photo album. He scrolled through the various pictures he took. Recent ones with Angela, Randy, and Shelly. Some taken a few months before of him with Callie, Marie, and Cuttlefish, all hanging out.

He then found those certain pictures, almost a year old. He opened one.

And there she was, standing with him, Callie, and Marie, all in their hero uniforms. He remembers Cuttlefish taking the picture.

' _Micheline…'_

He missed her dearly, just as Callie, Marie, and Cuttlefish did. But, as strong as that feeling was, he had learned to cope. His three co-agents had helped him during the tough time, even if they weren't doing so well themselves at the time.

He put the phone in sleep mode and set it down on the table to the side.

' _I hope you're still out there, Micheline. And if you are, I hope I'll see you again, sometime.'_

* * *

 **Wow another female character what will I think of next.**

 **But really I can finally talk about Micheline. Personally, I've been waiting for so long to get to this part of the story, so expect more frequent updates than before.**


	19. Innocence

Junko had returned to the Octarian hideout a few days prior. She had been given reassurance that the civilians down there had been fed, relieving her of her stress. She was given permission to take a break from her work, under the reasoning that she had recently been captured.

Junko hadn't told her plans to Ken, or anybody else, yet, and she wasn't entirely sure if she should. There was no way that she'd be given approval to raid the Presidio, even with Michael and his friends helping her.

The welcoming of the Octarians was a great thing to experience. She loved everyone here, and it was of great importance to her that they all survived long enough to see through this whole ordeal.

In the main room, she passed all the families, some smiled at her as she walked past. She got to the end of the room, which ended in a railing overlooking the flowing water. Junko leaned against the railing and look ahead, the rest of the sewer being too dark to see.

Junko stood, looking into the darkness for a while. Occasionally her eyes would play tricks on her and make her think she saw something, but blinking helped make the strange sights retreat out of vision.

After a while, she felt the hand of someone small touch her arm.

She looked down at her side, a young Octarian girl had walked to her.

"Junko?"

"Yes?"

"What are you looking at?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing, really. I'm just thinking to myself."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, it's nothing important. Just thinking about work."

"Junko?"

"Yes?"

"What did you do before we came here?"

"Oh, well I was in the military, you know this."

"What was it like being in the military?"

"I'll admit, it wasn't the most fun thing. We had to work really hard all the time, but it was worth it, because now I can help all of you."

"When are we going back home?"

The question stabbed at Junko. Most people here knew that they weren't going back to Octo Valley, not any time soon at least. But she hadn't thought that the kids wouldn't know.

"Well… um." Junko looked to the side, unsure of what to say. She decided that a small lie wouldn't be too bad with someone so young. "S-Soon. We're going back home soon."

"Really?"

"Yes, we are."

The kid suddenly hugged Junko.

"What's this for?"

"I just wanted to say thank you."

"It's no big deal, really."

"Well it is to me."

Junko just smiled and returned the hug.

"Do you want to come play with me and my friends?"

"Uh, sorry but not right now. Sometime later today, alright?"

"Alright."

She ran off.

Junko reminded herself. ' _One day we'll be able to get out of here, everyone's lives will be better then. All the trouble will be worth it then.'_

 _ **3 days until the Presidio…**_

* * *

 **What's wrong with the name Micheline, Anon360?**

 **I'm genuinely curious about this.**


	20. The Calm

_**1 day until the Presidio…**_

This was it, the last day before the raid. Michael woke up with a cold sweat, his dreams hadn't been pleasant that night. He looked to the clock, it was 8 am. He still had a full day ahead of him. Getting out of bed he found everyone else in the living room of the house, all going about different activities. Shelly was polishing her E-Liter, Angela was half-asleep and drinking coffee, and Randy was watching TV. Michael went through his own routine of activities and made a quick breakfast.

Nobody spoke, nobody needed to at that point. Everyone just did their own thing. It relaxed everyone to have a quiet morning like this, they needed it after all of them being so anxious the past week.

The morning passed, and everyone agreed to go to Octo Valley and meet up with the rest there.

Arriving there, they found Junko and Cuttlefish leaned over an old table. They were looking at a crudely drawn map of various areas in Octo Valley.

"If memory serves me correctly, the Presidio is somewhere near here, but that's only taking into account the main entrance."

"Are there any other entrances?"

"There's a lot of small entrances around the cliff that it's on. I remember there being a large drainage system the team and I might be able to go through, if it hasn't been covered up by now, that is."

"The Presidio is on top of a cliff? Well, this place is starting to sound more and more like a movie villain's secret lair than an actual military facility."

"Octarian scientists work day and night with little free time, I wouldn't be surprised if they seriously thought a stormy night with a lightning bolt would make the Presidio look more threatening."

Cuttlefish chuckled at the remark.

"Don't worry Michael, I know you four are here too." Cuttlefish said without looking up from the map. Junko turned her head and quickly waved to them before turning back to the map. "Do you need anything or are you all just stopping by?"

"Hey, Captain. We were planning on staying here for the night since we're gonna be leaving tomorrow, that alright?"

"Yes, that's fine. I have some sleeping bags behind the shack. Also, Callie and Marie will be here soon, just in case you were curious."

"Thanks, Captain."

"Eugh, this one's got some spider webs on it." Randy said, unrolling one of the sleeping bags.

"Ooh, I wonder what this one's got in it, a bees' nest?" Angela said.

"Don't you even joke about that, you know how much I got stung that time."

Angela laughed while Randy angrily grumbled.

The team spent the rest of the day resting. Junko joined in soon after, apparently finishing her planning with Cuttlefish. Michael decided to start a conversation with her.

"Hey Junko, what've you been doing this past week."

"Mostly making use of the time off I got to map out Octo Valley, my commander let me take a break from my work for a while because you guys captured me."

"So, Junko, I wanted to ask something."

"What is it?"

"Why were you so quick to join me in this raid? You said yourself why it might be a bad idea."

Junko took a moment to think of a response.

"I think it was because I figured that if we don't take action now and shut down whatever it is they're developing, they'll end up using it against Inkopolis. Those who are still in Octo Valley are not happy about Octavio being defeated, and if they're left unchecked they're almost certainly going to try and take revenge."

"Aren't you worried for the safety of the Octarians who are hiding out here?"

"Of course I am! Them launching an attack on Inkopolis means that the Octarians that are living here are going to get caught in the cross fire. Besides, once we've dealt with the Presidio… I have hopes that maybe we can start better lives in Inkopolis, maybe we can stop hiding underground. I-It's unlikely, I know, maybe even nonsensical to think that it can be that easy, but I'm hoping we can do it someday."

Michael put his hand on Junko's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "Don't worry, we'll deal with whatever's going on in the Presidio, and after that, maybe Cuttlefish and I can help your people out."

"Y-Yeah, I'd appreciate that. Thank you, Michael."

The team wasted the rest of the day away, with Callie and Marie arriving soon after. They all went to sleep early, so they could wake and be setting out for the Presidio early in the morning.

 _ **8 hours until the Presidio…**_

* * *

 **Ooh boy here we go we're gettin' there guys!**

 **Also, I feel like I should mention this. To reduce the need for these notes by me at the end of every chapter, as I feel they're going to detract from some of the moments that the chapters will end on, I'd like to suggest that guests message me their reviews on any of the external websites I have listed on my profile. This will allow me to respond to your reviews in a timely manner, making it so you don't have to wait until the next chapter for you to get a response just because you're a guest. Those who have an account on here, just keep doing what you're doing. Thanks.**


	21. Bygone

The journey was long. Michael and his team woke up at six in the morning, they traversed through the various areas of Octo Valley. Michael was almost sad at how all the places he had once fought the Octarians in we're falling apart due to neglect. The sponges he used to fill up with his ink were now festering with a sickly green mold, the fan-powered platforms he propelled through the wind with his ink were now rusted, tattered by excessive rain and oxygen. They even went through some of the arenas where he went face-to-face with some of the Octarian's most elite soldiers, now hollow shells of their former selves. Even Junko seemed surprised at how much the places changed during the time span of just one year.

Still, it didn't surprise her that much, these different 'levels', so to speak, were only kept in shape because of the power they had gotten through the Zapfish, without that power, they would waste away, suspended in the valley, just like any other thing would.

Area after area, they traveled. They traveled for hours, when Junko notified the group that they were probably half-way there, the sun had neared the middle of the sky.

"Junko, yer sure we're almost there, right?" Angela asked.

Uncertainty filled Junko's throat "Well, yes, we are… I think. L-Look, most of this is guesswork from what I was able to map out." She pointed to her map and ran her finger across it. "All of the areas we've been through seem to funnel towards somewhere, I think the Presidio might be located there."

Randy moved Angela aside. "So, let me get this straight… we've been going through these run-down piles of junk all day, and you don't even know if it's the right way?"

"Look, you can't expect me to know exactly where it is, I've never been there! I only know what it looks like because of what some Elite Octolings told me."

Randy took a deep breath, and looked Junko square in the eye. "…Fair enough."

The group then continued onwards.

Hours passed, the sun was nearing the horizon now. Along the way Shelly said that she was getting tired out.

"I've never had to carry my E-Liter for this long before…" She was able to say between breaths.

Michael ended up opting to carry her. It wasn't easy, for sure, but he kept up anyways, he had been in a war and was physically fit enough to carry someone as small as Shelly.

The team continued traveling, the sky glowing a bright vermillion as the sun receded to the other side of the world.

As the sun retreated, and the sky darkened, Junko announced something.

"Yeah, that has to be it."

Most of the team had their head slung down from walking all day, they lifted their head to see that the rocky trail they had somehow come across lead up, and up, and up. At the peak sat a large cubical building, its walls looking nigh-impenetrable. It sat at the edge of a cliff, with a lower area suspended over the deep abyss of Octo Valley.

"That's the Presidio." Junko confirmed to the team.

Michael moved one arm to bring Shelly back to the real world. The team looked up at their destination, the whole day's walk amounted to this.

"Alright guys, there's a large drainage pipe down off the side of the cliff, it'll be dangerous but it's our best bet of getting in there. I'm sure there will be enough of a view that one of us can ink a trail down the side. We should have plenty of time to do this. Let's get out of view and set up a camp, we'll go there in an hour and a half. Sound like a plan?"

The team confirmed their agreement with the idea. They all walked back down the path, eventually finding a small, flat area of rock that they could rest on.

This was going to be a long night.

 _ **The Presidio is here...**_


	22. Letters

This was it.

Michael's team had reached the Presidio, and they were about to enter.

Shelly and Marie worked together to ink a path down the side of the cliff, swimming down, the team slowly swam into the frankly absurdly huge drainage pipe that stuck out of the rocky wall. They dropped down to the side platform, their feet making small splashes in a puddle of dirtied water underneath them. They walked along the narrow path. Junko then halted the group.

She ran her hand against the wall, taking a few steps before stopping.

She hushed her voice. "Mm. They have Ink Mines laid out on the walls. Gimme a second to disarm them."

Junko put her hand to her chin, looking like she was thinking on how to deactivate the mine. For a small moment, her mind lingered, quickly crossing off different ideas. The team was left guessing what her next move would be.

Suddenly, she simply grabbed the mine with both hands, ripped it right out of the wall, and tossed it into the sewer water, where it blew up seconds later. She flashed the group a thumbs-up, then continued down through the sewer, 'disarming' more mines along the way.

Soon, the group reached a small metal ladder. The team quickly climbed it one-by-one. Junko slowly turned the valve on a manhole cover at the top of the ladder and popped it open. The team found themselves in a long corridor, filled with similar covers with valves on top of them, one line on each side of the room. Two lights hung on each side of a door, showing a clear exit.

The door led into a corridor, lit up by lights affixed to the ceiling and the faint luminescence of different tubes in the walls, the liquids in them all flowing to a common point. Michael was confused at this sight.

"The Octarians still have power in here? How? They don't have any Zapfish, do they?"

"It's weird to me too. We were told we lost all the Zapfish back then." Junko's words only supported the strangeness of the situation.

"Well, we can figure it out later, right now, we need to find those captured Inklings."

The team moved throughout the halls of the Presidio. They stopped every now and then to block out different cameras with their Ink. They made note to not fire a lot of ink, just enough to blind the cameras. If any guards found their Ink they'd be hunted down quickly.

They eventually came across some guards, two Twintacle Octotroopers, they were standing completely still, sitting atop their machines, guarding a door. Marie hushed the group, she watched from around the corner, squeezing down the trigger on her Splatterscope until it made a small beep to confirm it had been fully charged. She quickly swung around the corner and fired at the guards, splatting them near instantly.

The team entered the room they had been guarding and found a desk, cluttered with various official-looking papers, pens, and other tools. In the middle of the desk sat two different laptops, one hooked up to a wider monitor and an external keyboard plugged into it.

A small pile of lined papers caught Michael's eye. Picking it up, he steadied it to read their contents.

"To Sorui,

I've made some weird findings these past couple of days. I know I shouldn't have done this but… I sneaked into the boss' office. I think something's wrong with her. There were a bunch of papers where she rambled on about Inklings. I couldn't understand much of it though, her handwriting is _really_ bad. Maybe you can decipher it, you have horrible handwriting, so I'm sure you can help. I'm making a few copies so I'll send them to you when I get the chance.

Thanks, Yutaka."

"To Yutaka,

Jeez, Yu, I might have terrible handwriting but I think the boss might have it even worse. After the sixth line on one of these I can barely even tell what she's saying. One thing I can say for certain right now is that she's really obsessed with the Inklings. The word's in every other line for crying out loud. I'll try figuring out more tonight, ttyl.

From, Sorui."

"To Yutaka,

Hey, Yu, just calling in with some stuff I was able to read from these papers. Papers 1-3 all just ramble on about how the boss plans to take revenge on a bunch of Inklings, killing them and stuff. Not much different from how she is normally. The 4th and 5th ones though, those are interesting. She keeps talking about a few specific Inklings she wants to kill herself, some guys who're Agents and that old bastard Cuttlefish. But who can blame her? We all want to kill him in one way or another. The agents, though, I'm not so sure about. Probably the same guys who took us out in the war last year. I'll try figuring out what the rest say sometime else, they're messing with my brain. Seriously, the boss needs to figure out how to write 'I' and 'L' differently.

From, Sorui."

"To Yutaka,

Hey, Yu. Just checking in to see if you were there. Haven't heard from you in a while, you been busy with work or what? You have vacation days, you know, you should use them if work's becoming too much for you.

Well, just saying 'Hi', see you around.

From, Sorui."

"To Yutaka,

I'm starting to get a little worried now, Yu, where've you been? I don't even see you around the break room anymore. The vending machine's getting over clogged with those steamed rabbit fish dumplings without you around.

Are you okay? If something's bothering you then please come tell me, you know I get antsy when I don't see you for a long while.

Please respond.

From, Sorui."

"Yutaka

I'm so sorry. They came to me today. They threatened to kill me if I didn't tell them the truth. I regret doing this. Please, Yu, if you're even still getting these messages, tell me. I need to know that you're safe so I can calm down.

Please respond.

Please.

Sorui."

"Yutaka

I'm sorry.

Sorui."

It looks as though they tried writing something after that, but stopped themselves. Small wet spots stained the last paper.

Michael was thoroughly creeped out now. It was bad enough that he was in enemy territory, almost certainly outnumbered, but now it seemed like he was now in the plot of a horror movie. He was really not up to the task of fighting zombies, or whatever else the Octarians might have.

Michael showed the papers to his team, who were justifiably creeped out all the same.

They wasted no time leaving the room.


	23. Overground Spelunking

The Presidio was even more unsettling to be in than before. Maybe it was paranoia, but Michael started looking every which way as the team traveled through the halls, trying to keep an ear and eye out for… something, he wasn't all sure what, though. Those letters he read in that office really put him on edge, he was not in the mood to fight monsters from a horror movie or demonic Cuttlefish or something like that.

Michael thought to what that Sorui guy said about the papers he read, talking about his apparent boss ranting and raving about wanting to kill a bunch of Inklings. Specifically, Cuttlefish. He simply brushed off the specificity as just regular Octarian malice towards Inklings. Cuttlefish was probably public enemy #1 to the Octarians, considering he's lead two different teams that have caused their failure. He tried texting Cuttlefish the info, but there wasn't any reception this deep into Octo Valley.

The hallways stretched on and on, the occasional guard patrolling. Thankfully they weren't smart enough to actually move out of the way of the bombs they threw at them. Michael had a bit of a laugh at how they didn't improve at all since a year ago. The regular Octotroopers always seemed painfully incompetent for what their job actually was.

As more and more guards were taken out, and the team went further and further into the facility, the halls started getting eerily empty. The times between when they encountered guards was getting longer and longer. It eventually came to the point where the halls seemed completely abandoned. Even security cameras started falling in number. Not that they were actually abandoned, of course, they were still illuminated just as well as the other hallways had been.

Eventually, the hallways funneled to a single door. It had an insignia on it in the shape of an Octoling in their Octopus form, its eyes sharp and intimidating. Next to the door hung a small panel, with a small number keyboard with keys running from 0 to 9.

Junko approached the door and began working on the panel, trying different combinations and growing increasingly frustrated with each mocking beep the panel gave. She eventually started typing in nonsensical passwords, 12345, 09876, 77777.

"Alright, one last try, then we're just kicking the damn thing in." She said to the team.

She then jammed her finger into a single key, putting in the passcode "11111".

To nobody's surprise the panel beeped at them again, showing it was the wrong passcode.

Junko lived up to her word, stepping back and planting her foot into the panel, smashing it into multiple small pieces. A voice chimed in from the panel, seeming like a pre-recorded message.

"Thank you for breaking this panel, we were just dying to spend more money to fix another one. We'll open the door for you out of pity that you really weren't able to remember the code. This will come out of your paycheck, by the way."

"I feel bad for whoever's getting their pay docked for that one." Randy remarked after the message ended.

The large door opened. To the team's utter shock, the hallways that laid behind the door were absolutely teeming with Octarian soldiers. They all turned to the sound of the door opening.

The team and the army of Octotroppers stood there, staring at each other in silence. One Octotrooper seemed to have put two and two together, he hurried over to the other side of the room, and pressed in a button with his foot, setting off an alarm. This set off a chain reaction in the other Octotroopers, who started panicking and furiously mashed the button that controlled their machine's gun, sending in a tidal wave of Ink towards the team. All of them scrambled out of the way. All of them, except for Junko.

She was immune to their Ink, being an Octoling had its advantages when you're infiltrating an Octarian facility. She walked into the room, calmly, with the Octotroopers trying their best to splat her. She walked over to the alarm button that had been pushed and pressed on it again, stopping the alarm and immediately calming down the Octotroopers. The team was absolutely stunned at just how stupid they actually were. Junko signaled to the Octotroopers to leave the room and they followed her orders perfectly.

She called to the team, telling them it was fine to come back in.

"I'm glad our Octotroopers are taught to follow an Octoling's orders without question, makes it too easy to control them."

"Why didn't you do that before?" Angela asked.

"Would've taken too long. Besides, it was funny seeing you all get worked up over some tentacles with legs."

With Junko laughing at Angela's disappointed face, the team ventured deeper into this new area of the Presidio.

* * *

 **Bit of a more lax chapter today. Don't worry, I'll get a meatier one out this weekend. :^)**


	24. Hero

The new area was strange. The team did not encounter any guards. They weren't just uncommon here, they weren't around at all. Even stranger, the place seemed completely devoid of security cameras. The doors in the hallways were unlocked too. Many were unlocked, but didn't yield much, just organized desks with pencil holders and a few computers that were locked. Junko didn't want to go through guessing passwords again.

The doors progressively took on more intricate designs, apparently indicating rank, as Junko pointed out. The team came upon a hall with ten doors only, all with a personal design.

"These must be the higher ranking scientists." Junko said.

The team entered one and found a cluttered desk, papers strewn about every which way. One of the computers had been left on and was still logged in. Junko quickly opened up the document viewer. She didn't find anything of significance, just different files about worker schedules and the like. She decided to turn on visibility for hidden files. She found one hidden file named "important research for boss". She opened it up.

"A few of the test subjects have been showing some strange reactions when submerged in Octarian ink for extended periods of time. Those who don't drown start showing signs of irregularities in their internal organs. DNA tests will be run shortly"

Junko scrolled down.

"DNA tests show what appears to be combinations between the subject's natural DNA and Octarian DNA. Tests are now being done to see if this reaction is consistent with all Octarian ink or not."

Reluctantly, Junko scrolled down more.

"Tests confirm that this is consistent no matter which Octarian's ink is used. Questions still remain on different factors. Note-to-self: request to test the reaction a pregnant subject will have, and how their kin will be affected."

Junko started to feel sick, but continued to scroll.

"Request was accepted, unfortunately the prime test subject for this tried to escape and was killed. No matter, we have at least a few more pregnant subjects we can use for this."

"Haven't been writing here for a long while, mostly because I've been away from this project for a while. Heard the subject is due for birth soon. I'll write down findings we gather from the child."

"Now this was unexpected. We thought the subject's child would be deformed, or even a lost cause and dead on arrival. Turns out that our testing causes pregnant subjects to give birth to Octarians. They're perfectly fine, too, no disabilities or anything. I will look into raising these children for the Octarian army soon. Until then, I request looking into the similarities between the DNA of the subjects and our own."

Junko had to stop herself. She hunched over and held her head in her hand.

"Oh my god…"

"What?" Randy asked.

"The scientists… they were doing some kind of testing experiments on the subjects here. Apparently the Octarian's DNA is very close to the DNA of the subjects, so close that they can naturally fuse if a subject is dunked into Octarian ink long enough. I… I never knew about this."

"Well what does this mean, for us now then?"

"It means that, whoever they tested these things on, were almost certainly Inklings. No other creature has as many similarities to us as Inklings do."

Randy looked to the floor, then back to the rest of the team. They were distracted with something else in the room, and hadn't heard what Junko said.

"I'll go tell 'em."

"Alright." Junko tried to resume reading the notes, but when the possibility of subjects fully becoming Octarians came up, she had to stop. She closed the file and turned the computer off.

Randy had just finished relaying the information to the group. Angela, Shelly, Callie, and Marie were shocked. Michael was looking off into space. His eyes seeming to lose their shine.

* * *

The group continued. Michael was lagging behind, but he kept it discreet enough that nobody really took notice. Except for Shelly. She noticed when Michael continued to slow his walking over time. She made no note of it to the others, but kept it in her mind.

When the group reached an intersection of hallways, that's when Michael sprang into action, he ran ahead of the group, leaving them all behind him, dazed and confused. Shelly was the first to give chase. She quickly inked the walls of the hallway and kept up the pace with Michael's run.

She called out to him during the chase. "Michael! What are you doing!?"

"I'm going to go do what I should have done a year ago!" He yelled back as he picked up his pace.

Angela called down from the hallway, the whole team chasing after Michael now.

"Michael! Don't go off on yer own you damned idiot! Yer gonna get ripped to shreds without a team!"

"I handled myself well against an army of Octarians before and I can do it again!"

"Michael! Come back here!" Randy yelled out desperately.

Michael's voice turned to a pained scream. "NO! NOW THAT I KNOW THERE ARE INKLINGS HERE, I HAVE TO RESCUE THEM! I'M THEIR HERO, I NEED TO GET THEM OUT OF HERE!"

"Michael! We know that you think you need to do this on your own, but you don't! We're a team, we need to do this together!" Callie called out.

"I CAN DO THIS BY MYSELF!"

"Michael!" Marie called out.

"NO!"

"MICHAEL!" Marie called out, louder this time.

"I CAN DO THIS BY MYSELF! I NEED TO RESCUE THEM! I NEED TO!"

"IS THIS ABOUT MICHELINE, MICHAEL!?" Marie yelled down the hall at him.

Michael heart gained immense weight. He didn't know why, but he couldn't move his legs as fast as he just had. He slowed, even if he tried to get back to running.

Shelly caught up, she jumped out of her ink and tackled him to the ground, sending them both into a roll. Shelly ended up on top, holding Michael down.

Michael didn't have anything to say. He just laid on the ground in silence before speaking to Shelly.

"Can you let me up?"

Shelly eased herself off of Michael, the both of them stood back up. As soon as Michael stood up fully and adjusted himself, Shelly pulled him into a hug.

"What's this for?"

"It just felt like you needed one right now."

Shelly broke off the hug after a few moments. The team caught up to the two by now.

"L-Look guys, I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking with that."

"It's alright." Randy replied.

"No. No it's not alright. I almost ran off from you guys and got myself killed. Thanks for saying what you said, Marie, I think that might've been what stopped me."

"So, Mikey, what's with this 'Micheline' girl Marie just mentioned?" Angela asked, gesturing to Marie when she spoke her name.

Michael took a deep breath and sighed. He needed to tell them now.

"I guess now's as good of a time as any. Let's go into that room and I'll tell you." Michael gestured to a nearby door. It led into an office.

All eyes were on Michael.

He took another breath before speaking.

"Back when I first joined Captain Cuttlefish's new Squidbeak Splatoon, with Callie and Marie here working as Agents 1 and 2. I was recruited along with Agent 4, Micheline. She was…"

He paused.

"…She was my sister."

Callie and Marie had their heads down and eyes closed, apparently remembering Micheline. The rest of the team was surprised at the news.

"We worked together to fight the Octarians, and we did a good job of it. Alone, we were both great, but when working together, well, Cuttlefish always compared us to some of his previous Agents back in the Great Turf War. We cared for each other, too, when I was hurt really badly after a mission she'd be checking in on me all day when she wasn't out on a mission herself, and I did the same for her."

Michael chuckled to himself over the memories.

"...But, well, no stories like these end up with a happy ending."

His voice started choking up, but he continued nonetheless.

"I was resting after a really bad mission, I don't know who did it but apparently some of the Octarians back then really got their sense knocked into them and really did a number on me. Sis was out on a solo-mission and Cuttlefish told me she'd be back soon, so I waited. I waited for hours. I waited for almost the rest of the day. That's when I got a call from Callie and Marie. They told me that their connection to Micheline was cut short during the mission, and that she was ambushed. She was captured. That was the last I ever heard from her."

Tears started to bubble in Michael's eyes.

Callie cut in. "It took Mikey a good few months to really get used to not having his sister around."

Michael's voice was hoarse. "You never really get used to that. Sure, you learn to move on with your life and live normally, but… the pain you experience from losing someone that close to you. It stays. There's always a feeling of hollowness that won't ever be filled back up again."

"But, now that I know there's Inklings here, there's always a chance. Always a chance that she could still be around. And, if she is, I swear that I will find her. Even if she's changed I'll still love her like the sister she was. I might be able to still save her."

Michael grabbed his Splattershot.

"And I've realized something now. That's why I'll never leave this role. That's why I will never be a normal Inkling. And why I don't want to be anymore. As long as there's still someone I can save, I will save them. No matter the risks, that's one thing I can promise, as the hero of Inkopolis…"

"…and as a friend to all of you."


	25. Overseer

With Michael's promise made, he spearheaded the team further into the depths of the Presidio.

* * *

There was a faint giggle.

"How adorable, our little hero Michael seems really determined to rescue his sister."

An Octoling was reclining in her chair, one leg supported by the other knee, watching security camera footage of the group. She had heard everything.

"Well, we can't have him being so sure of himself, now can we?"

She called to the guards stationed outside her office.

"What do you need, boss?" One of them said in a low voice.

"I want you two to head out and separate Michael's little team. Isolate Michael, then capture him and bring him to me. Understand?"

"Yes, boss."

"Good, go on now." She motioned with her hand and sent the two burly Octarians off.

She sat back down in her chair, keeping a close eye on the team, she wanted to see just what would happen.

"I think _I'm_ going to enjoy this night."

* * *

The Presidio's halls stayed mostly consistent, to the team's surprise though, guards started appearing. They weren't just simple Octotroopers either, they were Octolings.

The team entered a certain hall and narrowly avoided being spotted by an Elite Octoling patrolling around, not taking notice to the sound of the door opening. The seven of them weaved through the building, not rousing any suspicion. They ended up taking refuge in a room, they had been going at this mission for hours and needed a break.

"How long have we been in this dang place anyways?" Angela asked.

"Couple of hours, at least. Hopefully we can get this done by the end of the night." Junko remarked.

"Hey, Junko, if you don't mind me askin', why'd you and the Octarians back in Inkopolis decide not to follow Octavio anymore?" Randy asked.

"Well, we didn't see much of a point in it anymore, we was defeated, not by an army of Inklings, but just one of them. We just didn't have any faith in him to protect us anymore."

"But how'd all of you guys get kicked out of Octo Valley? There must've been, like, way less people who still had faith in him, right?"

"The thing was that most of those people are ones who worked or still work in the Presidio. They had access to more advanced weaponry than the rest of us."

"So you guys retreated?"

"N-No. Some did, but most other's tried to form a large Militia and fight against them."

"What happened?"

"We were outmatched. Even if we had the advantage in numbers, that doesn't mean anything if your opponents have Inkstrikes and Inkzookas to wipe out your forces from 100 to 10 in the matter of a few seconds."

"We're you in this Militia?" Marie asked.

"Yes. I was appointed as a Sergeant. I was one of the few in my team that survived."

"Man, that's rough." Randy said.

"Yeah. It is."

The group held a silence for a moment.

* * *

"The damn idiots, you can't take a break in enemy territory." The Octoling laughed to herself. "Guess I'll have to teach them a lesson."

She left her office and stepped into the room following it. She glanced to the other scientists. They returned her gaze and nodded in greeting.

She stopped at a certain scientist, he had fallen asleep on the job and was lying his head on his desk. She jolted him awake by hitting the desk with her fist near his head.

"I'll give you a pass for this time, because I need you right now."

"Y-Yes, boss, what do you need?"

"Start ventilating some knock-out gas into that room there." She pointed to one of the many screens showing security camera footage, this one looked over the room Michael and his team was in. It was tiny and hidden, they had no idea they were being watched.

"Yes, boss." The scientist started configuring the ventilation system, blocking off paths that the gas could take that lead it away from the room. He confirmed his changes, and got the gas moving.

"Good work." The Octoling said before turning around and returning to her office.

"Let's see how they deal with this."

* * *

The team had been sitting in the room for a while now, Junko had brought some food she could scavenge from restaurants before this raid. The group each ate their own share. Marie, Shelly, Junko, and Michael were now thinking of where to go from this point onwards. Now that there were smarter guards to look out for, they'd have to be more careful in moving through the halls.

Angela was refilling her Ink Tank, her .52 Gal ate up ink like nobody's business and she might have run out of ink by now if not for letting the other's fire first.

Callie slid up to her and started a conversation. "Hey Angela! Randy told me that you two are big fans of me and Marie."

"Ah, hey Callie. Yeah we're pretty big fans. I have a lot of your albums back home."

"Hey, after all this is over, whaddya say us four hang out together?"

"Oh, uh, gee Callie I dunno."

"Aw c'mon, what's the worst that could happen, we're all friends, right?"

"Ya' know what? Okay, we'll go. I'm sure Randy'll love hanging with Marie."

"Great! I'll make plans when we get back."

Callie scooted away and spent the rest of her time trying to flirt with Michael.

After a few moments Shelly spoke up in a weak voice.

"Ugh… does anyone else feel weird right now?"

"Now that you mention, man my head's killing me." Angela put in.

"I… I feel like I need to lie down." Michael took a seat on the floor.

Shelly went out like a light, Randy was able to catch her before she hit the floor.

Junko, realizing the possibility that some kind of gas was being used, covered her mouth and nostrils. She looked around the room and saw a vent near the ceiling. She had to squint her eyes, but she could just barely make out a faint outline of a cloud of gas pouring into the room. She quickly opened up the door to the room, signaling to Randy to bring everyone out of the room quickly.

He dragged the rest of the team out one-by-one. Junko closed the door, with only small amounts of the gas escaping. Michael and Marie were barely conscious, the rest had fallen asleep.

Junko took her hand away from her face, she looked to Randy.

"They know we're here."


	26. Split Up

Junko and Randy narrowly escaped being knocked out like the rest of the team, Junko's training and Randy's size saving them. But now the five other members of the team were knocked out. Michael and Marie held on for a bit longer, but eventually they succumbed too.

"What do we do now? We can't drag all of them with us." Randy asked.

"I… I don't know." Junko said.

Randy thought for a moment.

"I'll bring them somewhere safe and guard them."

"You can't defend them by yourself."

"Come on now, have you _seen_ me? I carry this Splatling around with me all the time, I think I'm strong enough to defend myself and them. And you can change your hair color, right? You can blend in with those Elite Octolings."

"Hm, I guess you're right." Junko paused. "If we go through with this, I'm counting on you to keep them all safe." She got close. "But if something happens to even _one_ of them, you can bet that I will personally ruin that face of yours."

"Gotcha."

"Good." He hair rippled as it transitioned from red to black, matching the Elite Octolings. "I'll be back."

Junko ventured off into the Presidio, alone.

It took a while, but Randy was able to move the rest of the team to a different room. He rested each of their weapons in a small pile in the corner of the room.

He was going to have to wait a while.

* * *

Junko walked through the halls, hidden in plain sight. She passed by multiple regular Octolings, who didn't take any special notice to her. Even Elite Octolings didn't notice anything strange about her. This might be easier than she thought.

She mirrored the motions of other Octolings, patrolling through the halls in an orderly fashion. Occasionally stopping to readjust her ink tank. It gave her a sense of nostalgia from when she was still working in the Octarian army.

She got the memories out of her mind, she needed to focus on the here and now. Over time, she moved further and further ahead into the Presidio. When none of the other Octolings were looking, she entered the office of an elite scientist at the facility.

"Alright, let's see what we can find here." She whispered to herself.

She was a bit reluctant to go looking through computer files again, especially after last time, but she did so anyways. She found a picture file and opened it. It looked like a diagram of some sort, with arrows marking different parts.

The picture was of what seemed like an oversized inflatable pool. The diagram listed parts such as "surrounding catwalk" for an area around the object, presumably where people would stand on.

Underneath the object was a device labelled "Heater". Underneath the label was the statement "To speed up conversion".

Junko glanced to the top of the paper, the name of the device was printed in bigger, bolded lettering.

"Inkling-to-Octarian Conversion Machine"

"Hm." Junko considered the possibility that this might be the "Trump Card" the Octarians were working on during the war. She printed an extra copy out, folded it, and stored it away.

"I'll need to show the team this when I get back." She said in a hushed voice.

Leaving the room, she marched onwards.

* * *

Randy was still holed up in the same room, with the rest of the team still deep in unconsciousness. He was starting to get tired, he probably wouldn't stay awake for much longer.

His mind almost did drift away when he heard heavy footsteps outside the room.

He grabbed his Heavy Splatling and aimed it at the door. Standing tall, he anxiously waited.

The footsteps neared, he began to slowly rev up his Splatling.

The footsteps stopped.

Randy glanced at the bottom of the door, he saw shadows standing there.

' _Please don't come in… please don't come in…'_ Randy thought to himself.

The shadows left.

Randy felt relief spread over himself. He unrevved his Splatling.

The door broke open, flying off its hinges.

Randy, out of reflex, threw down a Splash Wall in front of him and revved up his Splatling, faster this time. He saw two large Octarians holding weapons in the doorway. The started firing at Randy upon seeing him, only to have their shots blocked by the Splash Wall. Randy grinned as he started firing upon them. They took cover behind the walls on their side, avoiding the shots fired. Randy realized his chance and dived down into his ink, swimming past them. He kept his patience, waiting until they would come out of cover and go into the room again to start firing.

The Splash Wall ran out of fuel and they jumped out of cover, firing into the room simultaneously. When they realized Randy wasn't there they looked around the room, confused.

Randy took the chance, he jumped out of his Ink and unleashed hell, splatting both of the burly guards in a near-instant.

"Hah! Guess strength really doesn't make up for no brains!" Randy said.

He surveyed the room, thankfully none of his teammates were hit in the crossfire.

"Guess I should relocate." He said to himself.

"I don't think that'll be necessary." A voice said behind him.

"Huh?" Randy was only able to make that out before he was struck in the head. A guard behind him had bashed him with his gun, knocking him out.

A feminine laugh echoed out. "I guess Randy _wasn't_ strong enough to protect them."

The boss of the Presidio stepped out from behind the guard that hand struck Randy. She surveyed the area. She called out to the numerous other guards behind her.

"Take them all to the holding cells. Bring Michael to me once he wakes up. Take their weapons too." She commanded. The guards all nodded and holstered their weapons, they picked up the whole team and ran off in single file.

"Now all that's left is that Octoling they have with them." She said to herself. She, and two other guards, returned to where they had come from.


	27. Prisoner

Michael woke with a start. His head felt like it had been split open, he tried to feel with a hand to see if it actually was but found that he was tied up, both on his wrists and ankles.

Michael had only just realized he could barely see his own hands, even when they were right up against his face. The room he was in was criminally dark, almost devoid of light.

Michael couldn't escape, his restraints were too strongly tied. He struggled as best he could but he only tired himself out further.

He sat in his cell and waited for what seemed like hours. He almost had fallen asleep when he heard a click at the door. He was greeted by two burly guards. One grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him across the ground out of his cell. He was moved across the facility and was taken to a marked room.

The doors slid open, blinding Michael with the higher amounts of light that came flooding out. Once his eyes adjusted, he could see multiple Octarian scientists all working at their stations, not paying any mind to the guards as they took him to a large door at the back of the room and threw him in once it had opened.

Michael raised his head up to take in his surroundings and was greeted by an Elite Octoling standing before him, wearing a caped lab coat above her normal gear. She looked him up and down. Her expression darkened.

"Michael…"

"Who're you?"

"Me? I'm glad you asked, I'm the boss of this facility. I worked up to this positon just a few months ago, actually."

She began pacing around him. "Tell me, do you have any companions with you?" She asked, playing dumb.

"No, I'm here alone…" Michael tried to cover up for his team.

She kicked him in the back of the head the moment he finished speaking, sending him to the floor.

"Don't try playing any games with me. We have cameras everywhere. Do you really think we'd just have the ones you've blinded? We're not a stupid species, you know." She turned her head to an Octarian who was sitting to the side. "Ryu, turn on the containment cell cameras, I want to show Michael here something."

The Octarian nodded and clicked a few buttons, turning five different screens to different camera feeds.

Michael looked over to see his friends, Angela, Shelly, Randy, Callie, and Marie, tied up and sitting in dark cells, just like the one he had been put in. Junko was missing. They all looked too still, almost like they were…

"What did you do to them!?" He was answered with the Octoling stamping her boot onto his temple.

"Be _quiet,_ I did not give you permission to speak."

The pressure on his head was unimaginably painful, but she did not let up.

"But, I won't be rude, so I'll answer. We funneled in some knock-out gas in the room you were all huddled up in. Almost knocked all of you out. That Octoling and Randy were the only ones left standing. If it hadn't been for the Octoling leaving him to guard all of you alone, we might've not gotten the drop on him and captured you all. They're all still alive, but they're not going to be awake for a little while longer."

Michael looked to the camera feeds again, he noticed in Randy's feed that he was gently breathing. Michael felt some relief. The Octoling lifted her boot off of Michael's head as she walked away from him. She continued to speak.

"Michael, I know how much you value your _friends._ " She spat out the word "friends". "So, I'd like to make a proposition. You swear your allegiance to Octavio, and I will let them go free. You have permission to respond."

Michael hated how she tried to make him stay silent and speak at certain times, but he kept his cool.

"No, I won't. I'll get out of here, and save them. I don't need you to…"

He hadn't noticed that she had walked over to him until she had kicked him again, this time in the face. Michael heard his nose breaking as pain seared through his face, burning it like a great inferno. Tears welled up in his eyes but he held them back, no matter how much pain he would go through, he wouldn't show any amount of defeat.

"So defiant. You've always been like this, Michael."

"What do you know? You don't even know me."

He was expecting another kick but was only met with a laugh.

"Oh, Michael. Dear, sweet Michael. I think I know you better than anyone else here, even your _friends._ "

Michael had heard a familiarity in her laugh. He couldn't piece together the parts, who _was_ this Octoling?

"But don't worry, I don't think you'll have a say in the matter anyways."

"What do you mean?"

"Why don't you look behind me?"

She moved aside to give Michael a view of what was behind her. It was a large, cylindrical vat. Different Octarians and Octolings seemed to be configuring it.

"What is that?"

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough. Guards, take him to it."

The same guard who had dragged him across the facility picked him up again and placed him on a platform at the edge of the vat. Michael looked in, seeing a deep purple liquid. It was bubbling erratically.

The Octoling walked up to his side. "This, my dear Michael, is the Octarian conversion machine. We've been working on it for over a year. We've worked out all the kinks, so don't you worry. It will give you full, unwavering allegiance to Octavio."

Michael was picked up and was sat down on a platform that hung over the vat.

"Why are you doing this!?"

"Why? Why are we doing this? I'll tell you why Michael. Do you remember, a year ago, when you were in the war? Don't you know just how much of our forces you crippled? Killed? To even think of having a fighting chance, we captured people of your species to see how we can turn them to our side. All your antics of snooping around our offices let you learn that this led to us finding out just how similar Inklings and Octarians really are. Similar enough, that one's ink can completely turn another's species around. Turning Inklings into Octarians, making pregnant Inklings give birth to our new forces." She laughed.

"Oh let me tell you, it's great fun playing God." She flashed him a manic grin that made his blood go cold.

"Wh-What are you going to do with me?" Michael tried to hide the fear in his voice. This Octoling was something else.

"Well, firstly we'll put you into that Ink there. We've heated it up a bit, apparently that makes the Inkling to Octarian conversion go by quicker. We'll put you in for just a moment, an instant. That will be enough to get you on our side. Then?" She laughed again. "We'll put you in for longer and longer." She had activated a crane that brought Michael's platform closer to her. She placed a hand under his chin and moved his face around, looking it over. "Yes, I think you'd make a _perfect_ male Octoling, all the girls will _love_ you."

She moved his platform back over the middle of the vat again.

Before she dropped him down, she spoke once more.

"Well, since you're going to be forgetting this in just a moment, I might as well show you now." She grinned as she unbuckled her mask, carrying it in one hand.

Recognition flashed in Michael's eyes.

"M…Micheline…?" He choked out.

He went under.

"Get his friends out of their cells and put them somewhere else. Give them their weapons, too, I want to see how it plays out when they meet the _new_ Michael." Micheline commanded an Octarian scientist to her side.


	28. Encounter

Randy's head felt like it had been split open, it hurt like hell, but he grinned and beared it. He sat up and took in the room around him, same as the one he had been in before. He saw the others, Angela, Shelly, Callie, and Marie, all looking like they were just waking up too. Junko was still gone.

Michael was gone too.

' _Junko is going to kill me.'_

"Ugh, what happened?" Angela asked first.

"You all got knocked out by some gas, Junko and I got you out of the room. I was able to protect you guys from a few guards but I, uh… kinda got sneak attacked?" Randy explained.

"What are our weapons doing here?" Shelly asked. Everyone's weapons were leaned up against a wall.

"This is really weird. If they got the drop on me, why wouldn't they take our weapons?" Randy asked.

"Wait, if they got the drop on you, which must mean they captured us, right?" Marie asked.

"I think they _did_ capture us."

"That makes no sense though, if they had us captured, why would they put us back here, with our weapons, no less?"

"Where's Junko, by the way?" Angela asked.

"She left, she's able to blend in with the Elite Octolings by changing her color."

"So she's out in the facility _all alone_?"

"Uh… I guess so."

"How could you let her go out on her own!?"

"Look, she knows what she's doing, she was in the Octarian army before, wasn't she? If she's disguised as an Elite Octoling, they won't know a thing!"

"I swear if something happens to her I'm going to kick your teeth in, Randy."

"That makes two people now."

Shelly cut in. "Where's Michael?"

Randy didn't respond.

"Randy, answer me. Where is Michael?" Shelly repeated.

"They must still have him captured." He responded.

"I'm going to kill you." Callie said.

Marie immediately grabbed Callie, keeping her back. "Callie, calm down."

"No. Okay, Marie, just listen for a second. Let me kill him and then I'll calm down."

"Do you really want to be known as the Inkling that murdered another?"

"He let Michael get captured, I swear I am going to kill him right here right now, I don't care what other's think."

"Yes you do, Callie, you spent two hours in the bathroom one night trying to fix your makeup because you were scared you weren't pretty enough for going out to dinner. Killing someone isn't going to help anyone."

Callie didn't respond.

"Is everyone just completely forgetting the point where I said I was sneak-attacked?" Randy said, in a concerned voice.

"Fine." Callie stopped struggling. "Sorry, Randy." Marie released her grip on Callie.

"It's fine, let's just get going, we'll find Michael, alright?"

"Alright."

* * *

The halls of the Presidio were as expansive as they had remembered them being. They were almost completely empty, to a scary degree. There were no guards to be seen. The cameras were still blinded, everything seemed the same, but it felt like everyone had just left, like they abandoned a place like this in a matter of minutes. It sent a feeling of unease through the whole group.

More importantly, where was Michael? He had to be somewhere in this facility, he wouldn't just leave everyone else here if something did happen.

The group searched what felt like the entire facility, corridor after corridor, it began feeling like a maze, and they even felt like they were going around in circles from time to time.

Then, suddenly, they heard footsteps. Not gentle ones either, they were very audible. The group pushed their backs to a wall, with Angela peeking out from behind the corner to see who would turn. The footsteps got closer and closer, and with them, a shadow appeared and got larger and larger. Angela readied her weapon, and would have fired when the figure turned the corner if not for one thing.

It was Michael.

Relief spread through Angela, she signaled to the others that it was alright and told them who it was. The group came out from the corner and rushed towards Michael.

"Hey! Mike! There you are, we've been looking all over for you, where've you been, mate?" Randy asked.

No response.

"Uh, Mike? You hearin' me?"

Still no response.

The group got closer, and as they did so they noticed there was something strapped to Michael's head.

"Mike? You alright? You're kinda quiet."

Michael turned to them.

The group saw he was wearing the same mask that the Octolings wore. He stood and simply stared at the group.

To the group, Shelly spoke. "Something's not right here."

"What do you mean, Shell?"

"There's something off about him, I just can't figure out what. Michael's never usually this hard to read."

Callie noticed it too, she looked closer at him and…

"Guys. Run."

The group turned to Callie. "Why?" Angela asked.

"That's not the same Michael, I-I can't say for certain why either but… there's something _seriously_ wrong with him."

At that moment Michael aimed his weapon at the group, with his finger on the trigger.

"Guys, RUN!"

Michael fired at the wall and jumped into it, swimming to the other side of the group and unleashing fire on them. They were able to run faster than his shots reached them, they turned a corner and pushed themselves against a wall. Michael continued firing erratically.

"Wh-What's wrong with him!?" Angela shouted.

"I don't know, did the Octarians do something to him?" Shelly put in.

"We need to find Junko, and quick." Marie said.

Just then, the shots ended. Randy reluctantly looked past the corner, only to see Michael wasn't there anymore.

"Where did he go?"

Michael had swam up his own ink towards them and rose up from it.

"Randy, watch out!" Angela cried out.

But it was too late, Michael grabbed Randy by the arm and flung him to the other side of the hall, making him hit the wall face-first. Just as Randy was standing back up Michael jumped and slammed into his back, knocking him back to the floor.

Michael was about to fire at Randy when he was hit by a flick of Callie's Krak-On Roller. Callie usually kept her weapon grounded, but now a fire burned inside her. Even if she loved Michael, she needed to protect her cousin and the others. She wielded her roller as if it was a deadly sword. She was challenging Michael, and it was a challenge he accepted. Michael ran to her while firing, but it was all for naught when she flicked her roller once more, hitting him again and canceling out most of his shots.

Angela sprang into action, throwing down a Splash Wall to cover her and the group from Michael's shots. She rushed to Randy, picking him up and retreating back to the group, she set him down and signaled Shelly and Marie to get into the fight too. Shelly went on the offensive, throwing down Burst Bombs, throwing off Michael's balance, Marie helped in that too, firing at Michael's other side. He was forced into dodging one attack, but get hit by the other.

They had him on lockdown, if he was able to get past Shelly and Marie's combined fire, he'd simply be knocked back by Callie's roller.

Things would have been simple, if not for the Splash Wall running out of fuel. As soon as it dropped, a fire ignited inside Michael. He caught a Burst Bomb and threw it back incredibly fast, knocking Shelly onto her back. He covered up the walls and swam towards Marie. He jumped out, kicking her Splatterscope away and throwing her to the ground. Callie was quick, though, as she flicked her roller once again, hitting Michael. Michael used the best effort he could muster to dodge the incoming ink, inching ever closer. Soon, he was close enough to grab Callie's roller and wring it from her hands. He threw it to the side and picked up his Octoshot again, as he rose to fire at her, he was met with a fist to the face.

He recoiled back. The fire inside Callie was now a blazing inferno. Just as Michael recovered Callie delivered another blow to his gut, causing him to reel over. He dodged another hit and went in for a left hook, only to be blocked by Callie's forearm, she took advantage of the moment and brought in another blow. She had an advantage over him in close-combat, she could keep him away from her and also made note to stand between him and his weapon.

The two danced around each other for a moment. Michael attempted to rush in, only to be knocked back by another hit.

Now, Callie ran in, attacking with an uppercut straight to his chin, using the uppercut as an opening, she drove her other fist into Michael's face, sending him to the floor.

He came to a stop at a wall. Callie held her stance, cautious of Michael doing something to catch her off guard. He simply laid there. Even when wearing a mask, Callie could still feel him staring at her and she felt his hate for her in this very moment.

Callie realized too late that Michael was sitting in a pool of his own ink.

He dived down and jumped out from underneath his Octoshot, while Callie reoriented herself, he ran up and smashed the butt of his gun into her head. On her way down to the ground she grabbed Michael by his shirt collar, bringing him down with her.

With the rest of her strength, she was able to throw him over herself, sending him crashing into the ground.

"Guys, get him, NOW!" Callie was able to call out.

Shelly acted quick, picking up her E-Liter, she took aim from the ground. She overcharged the weapon, making it fire a huge glob of ink at Michael, its immense weight, coupled with him getting weakened by the fight made it so that he couldn't pick himself up.

The hall was quiet, save for Michael's struggling. Marie picked herself up. Angela was able to steady Randy on his feet.

"You alright?" She asked.

"Ngh… yeah, yeah I'm alright. I can walk this off."

Marie pulled Callie up, supporting her.

"Are you alright, Callie?"

"Yeah. Heh, I guess those fighting lessons did pay off after all." Callie said, laughing.

Marie laughed too. "Yeah, I guess they did."

Randy walked over to Michael, who was still struggling. He peeled him out of the ink and slung him over his shoulder.

"We'll get you fixed up soon enough, right buddy?" Randy said. Michael only growled in response.

"We need to find Junko soon, she'll know what to do." Angela said. "I hope." She added.

"Right. Let's go."

The team moved onwards, now searching for the last member of their group.

* * *

"Damn it!" Micheline pounded her fist on her desk. "Guess Michael wasn't strong enough to beat them all."

"Boss, may I make a suggestion?" An assistant scientist spoke up.

"Go ahead."

"I think it would have been a better idea to send Michael out with reinforcements."

"Thank you, I definitely didn't think of _that._ " Micheline replied in a tone that practically bled sarcasm. "Just get back to work, I'll figure something out on my own."

"Man, it was just a suggestion." The scientist grumbled to himself as he left the room.

"Even if they do end up getting here, they won't be able to get Michael back to normal anyways. And besides," She chuckled. "I still have _that_ to back me up."

She stood up out of her seat.

"No matter what happens now, I've still won."


	29. Recovery

The team, once again, retreated into a room in the facility. Michael was still growling at them like a rabid animal. Shelly decided to approach and remove his mask. He had been bound up and couldn't offer any resistance. He had lost the trademark black 'mask' of an Inkling and now had violet markings under his eyes. He started at the group with hatred, his fangs bared.

"Hey, aren't those…" Callie began.

"Those are the same markings Octolings have." Marie finished.

"God, just what did they do to him?" Angela was shocked. What kind of dirty tricks could the Octarians have used to make Michael fight his own friends, and gain the same kind of markings as they did?

"Something's going on here. Do you think they might have used that "trump card" Junko mentioned they were developing?"

"It's possible. It wouldn't surprise me to know that a weapon that could have won them the war turned Inklings into Octarians." Shelly replied, still looking Michael over. "It'd give them a really good output of soldiers for their army."

"But how they did it is my question. If Octarians and Inklings really are this close genetically, there's got to be some way to reverse this." Marie said.

"Hm… You know, Junko did mention that Inklings were converted by keeping them under Octarian ink long enough, right? Do you think if we put Michael under some of our ink he'd go back to normal?" Randy chimed in.

"That's a pretty good idea, actually. We could test that right now." Angela said. She pulled out her .52 Gal and strapped her ink tank to her shoulders. She fired onto the floor, creating a sizable pool of her own ink.

"Now we just gotta get him in." Randy and Callie had picked up Michael, Randy by his legs and Callie by his torso. Michael thrashed around violently, trying to dig his teeth into Callie's arms. Being tied up didn't help much in his efforts, though.

Michael's body offered a lot of resistance going into the ink, it was just a small puddle, not a large vat like the one he had been dunked into. Randy and Callie progressively got his lower body into the puddle, then his torso. His head offered a lot of resistance though, it moved around trying in vain to swat off their arms.

"Ah, jeez, I really don't wanna do this, but…" Randy said. He grabbed Michael's head on both sides.

"Sorry, bud." He then forced Michael's head underneath the ink.

"God, I'm disturbed just watching this." Angela said, her arms folded.

Randy's arms moved around, keeping Michael under the ink. After a couple of minutes of him praying for the whole thing to be over soon, his arms stopped. He pulled them out of the ink.

The team watched the ink intently, it was bubbling, showing that Michael was still breathing.

Then in an instant, he broke the surface, taking in heavy breaths. His eyes were wide. He turned to Randy.

"I swear… if you ever do that again I am going to kill you." He responded in-between breaths.

"That's four people tonight that want my blood, anyone else?" Randy said, mockingly.

Michael was about to yell at Randy when he was interrupted by Callie pulling him into a tight hug.

"Oh god Mikey I was so worried, I thought you were going to be an Octoling forever." She said.

"Oh… right. Wh-What happened while I was an Octoling?" He stammered out to the rest of the group.

"Nothing much, you just shot at us, threw Randy into a wall, and got into a fist fight with Callie." Marie said.

Michael's face went pale. "Oh… Oh god I'm so sorry guys, I didn't know what I was doing."

"Man, it's alright. We know that the Octarians did something to you."

"Oh. A-About that. Before I got… transformed, I found something out about the Octarian that runs this place."

"Oh really? What'd you find out?"

Michael stuttered, his voice choking up a bit. It was painful to say what he found out. "The boss of this place is… is my sister, Micheline."

Everyone in the room took on a look of shock.

"She's an Elite Octoling here. I guess she was turned into one when they captured her last year." Michael continued.

"Oh god, Michael I'm so sorry." Angela said.

"It's hard to think that the Micheline we worked with turned her own brother against his friends." Marie said.

"But hang on, Michael was turned against us by being dipped into Octarian ink, which means their ink kind of acts as a brainwashing agent if I'm understanding this correctly. If that's true then Micheline might be able to be saved, right?" Shelly put in.

"Yeah, I mean, it can't be impossible, right? We just turned Michael back to our side by giving him a small bath in Angela's ink." Randy added.

"That's what I was thinking, but I was only put in their ink for a small amount of time, who knows how long sis was put in there for when she was captured." Michael said.

"Still, it can't hurt to try, right?"

"It ain't gonna be that easy, Randy. Ya' gotta figure, Micheline's the head honcho here, she's no doubt got guards protecting her behind 24/7." Angela said.

"And even if things go sour for her, she's no doubt got a backup plan." Shelly added in.

"Darn, you're right." Randy said, cupping his chin in his hand.

"Micheline also told me they have cameras everywhere in this facility, even if we can't see them. Even if we blinded some cameras back when we first got here, they can track our every movement, we wouldn't be able to get the element of surprise." Michael said.

"Who said anything about surprise?" Callie said, still hugging Michael. "We're all pretty powerful as a team, maybe we can get 'em through sheer force."

"Well, we're definitely not gonna get a drop on them anytime soon with cameras all over the place. I guess brute force is our only option, huh?" Randy said.

Michael sighed. This whole situation was a lot to take in. "Yeah, I guess it is." He pulled Callie off of himself. "Well, there's no point in standing around. We're no doubt being watched right now, better get a move on. Also, we're gonna need to find Junko, where is she, anyways?"

"Randy says she's disguised as an Elite Octoling, gathering some intel." Shelly said.

"Good, hopefully she's found some stuff by now." He grabbed his newly acquired Octoshot. "Guess I'll have to be using this from now on. Let's get going, guys."

The team picked up their weapons and continued their long journey into the Presidio.

* * *

 **We're getting there, folks, just a few chapters more.**


	30. Replication

"We'll need to find where the conversion machine is again. I don't remember what happened between then and now." Michael said to the team. "We need to get rid of that. Then, I guess we'll need to face sis."

The team was being tracked, hidden cameras peppered the walls, their only option at this point was to try and win through brute force.

"I'm thinking the thing's gotta be further in, but it shouldn't be too close." Michael was cut short when an alarm started blaring, ringing throughout the facility. A voice came up on an intercom system. It was Micheline.

"Attention, this is not a drill. All guards are to leave their posts and enter Sector E. There has been a break-in that must be remedied as soon as possible. You are permitted to use lethal force once you find the culprits. I repeat, this is not a drill."

"Damn, I knew this would happen sooner or later!" Angela said.

"We have to find that thing, and quick!" Michael said. The team picked up their walk into a run, rushing further into the Presidio.

Octarians of all types were now running through the halls. A few Twintacle troopers intercepted the group and started firing. Angela and Michael returned their fire, splatting them both.

The group ran into a narrow hall when they heard something land behind them. An oversized Octoball was rolling towards them. There were Snorkel Octotroopers behind it.

The group ran, with the huge Octoball picking up speed as it continued rolling. It covered up the floor, walls, and ceiling of the hall with ink. The group now desperately ran as fast as they could. They reached the end of the hall and Angela immediately threw down a Splash Wall. The Octoball absorbed all of the wall's ink and burst, splatting the Octotroopers hiding in its ink with the resulting blast.

The team moved on, running through the facility.

They were chased by countless guards. They got past all.

"Guys, we need to stay on our guard, I know they have guards that are better than this somewhere, and we can't get too confident!" Michael said to the group.

"Speak of the devil!" Randy said in response. Michael looked ahead to see a large Octotrooper had jumped in, apparently from a vent in the ceiling. He blocked their way and pulled out his weapon. It looked to be a modified Blaster.

"Here I was thinking all the Octotroopers were just tentacles with legs." Callie said.

"It must be the result of mutations. Experimenting with DNA isn't above the Octarians here, apparently." Shelly said.

The Octotrooper roared and barreled towards them. The team jumped out of his way, half to the right and half to the left. The Octotrooper whipped around and began firing. The globs of ink fired were massive and blew up in even bigger blasts. The team scattered, dodging the explosions.

Michael, Shelly, and Randy found cover and hid behind it. Angela was firing. When a shot came her way she threw down a Splash Wall to cancel it out. The blast hit and burst, destroying the wall's ink supply nearly instantly.

The Octotrooper stopped firing and ran forward, he grabbed the Splash Wall by the stand and began swinging it, nearly hitting Angela. He fired a shot. She dodged to her left, and was caught off-guard when he swung the wall again, hitting her side and flinging her into a wall.

The Octotrooper took notice to Michael, Shelly, and Randy hiding behind cover and ran towards them, ready to strike with the empty Splash Wall. He was stopped when he was shot in the back by Marie. He tripped up and while trying to steady himself Shelly took aim and fired at his chest, knocking him back.

Randy had revved up his Splatling and began firing, Michael jumped out from cover and pulled out a newly acquired Suction Bomb. He filled it with ink and chucked it. It attached to the Octotrooper's arm. Randy's fire from his Splatling distracted the Octotrooper long enough for the bomb to detonate, splatting the Octotrooper's arm. His Blaster dropped to the floor.

The Octotrooper grew angry and began dashing towards the group. They tried firing at him, but their shots didn't slow him down in any way. He swung the Splash Wall at them, catching all three of them in one hit and flinging them away.

He turned to Callie and Marie. Marie took an eye to her scope and started charging. Callie slapped her roller on the ground. The two ran for each other, with Callie raising her roller in time to block an incoming swipe. Her arms quivered as she tried holding the roller against the Octotrooper's immense strength.

"M… Marie! Now would be a good time to shoot!" Callie called out.

"I'm low on ink! It's taking too long to charge!" Marie yelled back.

' _If I can't beat him in strength… Then I'll just have to outplay him!'_ Callie thought, she then lifted her feet off the ground, throwing off the balance and sending the Octotrooper towards her.

She took her roller out from under the Splash Wall and ran it against the Octotrooper's legs as she slid under him, sending him crashing to the ground.

Marie's Splatterscope beeped and she fired. The shot hit the Octotrooper right in the head, finally splatting him.

The rest of the group had recovered by then and stood back up.

"You guys are ok!?" Callie said, shocked.

"Yeah, we're fine. Even if he was strong he wasn't that smart, using something made of plastic as a weapon." Michael said, stretching his back.

"But you all went flying after he hit you!"

"Like I said, he was strong but the Splash Wall isn't exactly made of the toughest stuff out there." Michael walked over and grabbed the Splash Wall off the ground, at which point it immediately crumpled apart into hundreds of pieces.

Marie strapped a refilled ink tank back onto her shoulders. "Let's keep going, guys. It's only a matter of time before they send another one of those freaks at us."

The team moved on.

* * *

"No, you idiot! Don't use the Splash Wall, use your Blaster!" Micheline was spectating the fight, her voice furious.

When the Octotrooper got splatted she slammed her fists into her desk, sending a recently filled cup of coffee falling to the floor.

She sighed and slid back into her chair, a hand covering her face. "I need to get better troops."

She looked at the camera feeds again. The group was making their way towards her.

"They'll be here soon." She stood up out of her chair. "Never send a measly guard to do the boss' job." She turned off her computer and walked behind her desk. A pair of doors resting there opened automatically. She walked through a short hallway and inputted a passcode on a keypad. The door opened to a massive room. In the center stood the Octarian's last source of energy.

The Replica Great Zapfish.

She walked up to the containment bubble's control unit and deactivated it. The Zapfish stared at her intently as she walked past it and moved towards another control panel. She input a few settings. Gears whirred as the control panel receded back into the floor.

Metal slid against metal as most of the floor surrounding her receded into the walls. A massive elevator slid up from the depths, carrying Micheline's last resort.

She began to laugh.


	31. Intervention

"We're getting close, I can feel it. I recognize these halls from before." Michael said.

The team had now gone up against numerous guards that tried to stop them and their numbers started thinning out.

"Yo, Mike, I wanted to ask something." Randy spoke up.

"Shoot."

"You got back all the Zapfish the Octarians stole back in the last war, right?"

"Yeah."

"How's this place still have power, then?"

"That's something I've been wondering since we got here. But who knows, with what kind of stuff goes on in here I know there has to be something big powering this place."

The team came across a door with a keypad resting next to it.

"Gimme a sec." Randy said. He approached the keypad and looked it over. He then swung his fist into it, crushing it into pieces. A recording of Micheline's voice rang out from the debris.

"Thank you for breaking this panel, we were just dying to spend more money to fix another one. We'll open the door for you out of pity that you really weren't able to remember the code. This will come out of your paycheck, by the way."

"Hah! Guess Junko's method does work for all of these things!" Randy said as the door opened.

The room was abandoned, with large systems with multiple screens lining the walls.

"I remember this room, I was brought in here while I was captured." Michael said. "That means the room with the machine is just past that door over there!"

The team moved to the door Michael mentioned, the doors slid open automatically.

Michael walked into the room and gazed upon the conversion machine. It was left in the same state he had last seen it. His mind flashed back to the encounter with Micheline in this room. His grip on his Octoshot tightened.

' _I'm going to save you, sis, no matter what.'_

The team approached the control panels that rested at the machine's side. Shelly noticed a setting for 'Heat'. She turned it up to the maximum level.

The ink in the machine started bubbling even more than it had before. Steam started rising from it, too.

"Jeez, Shell, did you have to turn it up so high?" Randy said, tugging at his shirt collar.

Michael cautiously moved up to the catwalk that gave a view into the machine. The ink was starting to dissipate. It eventually all vanished, turning into a violet vapor.

"The ink's gone, turn the heat off."

Shelly set the heat back down to the lowest level in response.

With the machine essentially deactivated, the team only had one last objective now.

"We're coming, sis." Michael said."

"If you're all done with turning that machine off, will you please move on now?" A voice rang out from behind Michael.

"Sis!"

Micheline put a hand up. "Stop, Michael. I don't care for what you have to say. I'm just here to get you all moving faster."

"What do you mean?"

"You see, I realized something, about all this."

"What is it?" Michael said, somewhat hopeful that everything would end now.

"It was wrong to send my guards after you all. Those braindead idiots couldn't even kill a fly if they tried. What I realized is…"

Micheline pulled out her weapon, an Octoshot.

"Is that _I_ should have killed you myself!" She grinned, the light source from her mask intensifying.


	32. Micheline

Micheline began firing, the team was taken off-guard and took cover behind the machine. Micheline swam up the line of ink she had shot and jumped out firing again. Angela threw down a splash wall and Shelly tossed out Blast Bombs from behind the wall.

Micheline was quick and dodged all of them. She took a screwdriver out of her pocket and punctured the ink tank on the Splash Wall and began firing again. Callie jumped up and flicked her roller at Micheline, who dodged the ink flung and fired at Callie, knocking her out of the air and making her hit the floor. Micheline then ran over, jumped, and threw her fist down towards Callie. Callie somersaulted away, standing herself back up straight. She strafed around Micheline as she was firing, distracting her enough for Randy to rev up his Splatling and start firing too. Micheline was hit and dived down into her ink, being faster than Randy could turn the Splatling. Angela took initiative and dove down into the ink Randy shot, following Micheline.

Noticing she was being tailed, Micheline jumped out of her ink and spun around, throwing down a Disruptor at Angela, slowing her down immensely. Angela jumped out of her ink and began firing. Two shots hit but Micheline dodged a third and continued to dodge the rest.

Angela's .52 Gal jammed, indicating she had run out of ink.

"What the!? This weapon isn't supposed to use ink that fast!" She hit her weapon a bit, not noticing that Micheline was running towards her.

"Disruptors, sweetie!" She said as she roundhouse kicked Angela, knocking her down. Angela clutched her side in her hands, as she cried out in pain.

Shelly fired at Micheline, taking her by surprise and almost knocking her down as well. Micheline picked herself up off the ground quickly and grabbed her Octoshot equally as fast. Marie responded by firing just as she got up. Micheline sidestepped the combined fire from both snipers. She hit a button on the side of her mask. Its light intensified, creating a sighting laser like that of a charger. She focused while dodging and started firing, most of her shots hit the two, who had to dive down into their ink to escape being splatted. They both swam away to hopefully get a higher vantage point and get out of Micheline's range.

Micheline focused on Randy now, who had started revving up his weapon once more. As she approached he threw down another Splash Wall, blocking Micheline's fire. Micheline retreated into her ink again, swimming around the conversion machine. Randy, expecting her to appear behind him, turned around. He waited, aiming his Splatling on the other side of the machine. The Splash Wall fell, out of fuel.

Micheline jumped out behind Randy, and started firing at him. Randy was about to get splatted.

Callie jumped out of her ink too and slammed her roller into Micheline, knocking her away.

"Thanks Callie!"

"No prob, Randy!"

Callie started running towards Micheline, who was recovering from being hit.

She was about to squash Micheline with her roller.

"STOP!" Michael yelled out as he threw himself between the two.

Callie pulled back her roller, stopping its path in mid-air.

"Michael, get out of the way! She's vulnerable!"

"She's my sister! And I know that there's a way to save her, I know it! We don't need to fight her!"

Callie drew in her breath. She sighed, and put down her roller.

Michael turned and held out a hand to Micheline.

"Sis, please."

Micheline looked at Michael's hand for a moment, then to him. She paused.

She grabbed Michael's arm.

Then the other.

She then forced her feet forward against him, pushing him away while pulling at his arms. Michael screamed in pain.

"You IDIOT!" Micheline said, laughing. Michael's arms felt like they were going to be torn clean off.

She released his arms and kicked him away. Michael tried to stand himself back up, but his arms quivered and couldn't support him.

Callie ran over and tried to help him up.

"Michael, you, of all people, giving someone mercy. I would have expected you to learn one of the fundamental rules of this world." She picked up her Octoshot with one hand and pointed it at the two.

"It's KILL or BE KILLED."

Angela jumped out of her ink from in-between the two, grabbed Micheline's arm and lifted her up. She then slammed Micheline into the ground.

"Kill or be killed, eh? I guess you do have some good ideas in that head of yours!" Angela moved quickly, grabbing Micheline's Octoshot.

Micheline jumped up to her feet.

' _Dammit! I need to think of something!'_

She threw down a disruptor and dived down into what was left of her ink. She swam towards the room's exit that lead into her office, when her ink trail ended she leaped out and started running.

"After her!" Angela cried. The team chased after Micheline.

Micheline grinned. _'Those idiots don't know what's coming for them.'_

The door to the massive room was opened. Micheline ran to the edge of the platform and turned.

The team stopped, all of their weapons pointed at her. Micheline put on her best 'concerned' face.

"Give up, Micheline, we have you cornered." Marie said, looking down her scope.

"Surrender now, and we'll get you fixed up." Randy said, revving his Splatling.

"Sis, please! Listen to them. I don't want to fight you." Michael said.

Micheline paused for a moment. She stood up straight, glancing to the side.

"Please, sis. Enough of this, let's just go home, okay?" Michael took a step forward in front of his team.

Micheline breathed deep, then sighed and looked to the floor.

"You…" She paused. "You IDIOTS. You haven't cornered me!" Micheline then leaned back, falling off the platform and into the abyss.

Michael rushed over and tried to reach out a hand for her.

"SIS!"

There was silence.

Then, a faint, distant sound.

And then, the feeling of a rumble.

A huge, circular machine rose up from the inky blackness.

It was DJ Octavio's Octoweapon.

And Micheline was piloting it.

"Quite the opposite, actually." The pathway that connected the platform to the door slid away.

The team was trapped.

Micheline hit a button on the Octoweapon's control panel. Multiple doors opened across the room, passageways slid out from under them and connected to the platform.

Hundreds of Octarian guards flooded out of the doors.

" _I'VE_ CORNERED ALL OF _YOU!_ "


	33. In the Final

Michael stepped back, looking around.

There were more Octarians than he had ever seen, and they now surrounded the whole team.

"Anyone got any ideas?" Randy said, his voice cracking in fear.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Well, thanks anyways."

"Did you all _really_ think I wouldn't have a backup plan? Why, you all had me on the ropes back in that room. But you all ran straight into my trap." Micheline laughed. "I had no idea how _eager_ all of you were to die!" She began speaking to her troops. "Kill everyone, but leave Michael alive, I want him for myself…" She grinned.

The team looked around, with their backs to each other.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit." Randy cursed to himself. "We've come all this way, just to die here."

"A-At least we'll have a good afterlife, eh, R-Randy?" Angela stammered out.

"There has to be some way out of this…" Shelly said.

"H-Heh, yeah, there…" Angela sniffled. "There has to be, right?" Her voice was quavering. "Oh god I don't wanna die…" Angela began to break down. "IdontwannadieIdontwannadieIdontwannadie" She repeated to herself, grabbing her head. "I haven't even said goodbye to my parents yet…"

"It'll be okay, Ange, it'll be okay." Randy said trying his best to calm her down.

"NO! IT'S NOT GOING TO BE OKAY! WE'RE GOING TO DIE HERE AND NOBODY WILL KNOW!" She snapped at Randy, tears streaming down her face.

Micheline roared with laughter. "What's that? The big, strong Angela fears death? Oh, how precious!"

Michael couldn't comprehend what was happening, his friends were breaking down. Angela was in tears and speaking gibberish, Callie was looking to Marie for comfort, but even Marie was shaking in her boots, and Shelly practically scratching gashes into her face trying to think of a way out.

And Micheline was laughing at them all.

Michael hope was shattered. Even if they did escape this situation, could Micheline even be saved at this point?

Was she even _worth_ saving at this point?

Michael needed time to think, but given the team's current situation, time was the last thing he would get.

Micheline had calmed down. "Well," She shook out the left over laughs. "With that over with, I suppose it's time for you all to die. Octarians… FIRE!"

"WAIT!" Michael thought he heard a voice call out from above. Was it actually there? He didn't know.

The shots were fired, and Michael clamped his eyes shut, hard, waiting to be splatted.

…

 _Tink!_

…

 _Tinktinktinktinktinktinktink!_

Michael opened an eye, a huge bubbler had formed around him and his team. He tried remembering who had the Bubbler weapon. He looked back.

Junko was standing in the middle of the group.

"Junko!?"

"In the flesh." She responded.

Angela looked up at the team's savior. She started laughing in joy. "Junko!"

"Let's save the thanks for later, eh? Right now, I think we all have beef with a certain Octoling." Junko looked up to Micheline.

"Junko…" Micheline hissed through her teeth. "I should have killed you first."

"Yeah, well, we all make mistakes, huh?"

The team, now with their confidence restored, picked up their weapons again.

"Let's do this."

All seven of them started firing into the lines of Octarians. Splatting them left and right as they tried desperately to shoot through their bubblers.

When the shields ran out, the Octarian forces were gone.

"It's seven versus one now, Micheline!" Angela called out.

Micheline hung her head down. Then started laughing once more.

"Yes, Angela, you are right. It _is_ seven against one."

She pressed a few buttons. The Octoweapon brought out two robotic arms, a Gatling cannon, an oversized Inkzooka, a massive Killer Wail, and now sported a gargantuan bubbler shield around it.

"But don't mistake that for an advantage.

The REAL battle begins here."

Micheline fired the Gatling cannon, covering the platform in ink. The team was scattered when the firing stopped. She then began firing the Inkzooka. Massive tornadoes of ink came flooding down towards the team. The team narrowly escaped their paths.

"What the hell is in that thing!? I've only seen shots like that come from a Rainmaker!" Angela yelled, jumping out of the path of one tornado.

"Octoling technology! We do these kind of things on a daily basis!" Micheline called back while continuing to fire.

After one shot she continued to fire the Gatling cannon. Randy responded by firing his Splatling. The ink shots clashed in mid-air, sending ink out every which way.

"Even if he can equal that cannon, we won't get any shots in with that shield protecting her." Shelly said.

Michael noticed something on the platform while the clash was going on. It looked like a jump pad.

"Callie! You're using the Krak-On roller, right?" He called out.

"Yeah, why?" Callie called back.

"I have a plan! Get your special ready as quick as you can!"

Callie nodded and started running her roller across the platform as much as she could, when she was done her special gauge was halfway full. "I almost got it, but I need a bit more area to cover!"

"We'll have to wait her out then."

Randy was almost out of ink now, he dove down into the ink Callie had rolled out and started to refill his tank automatically.

"Hiding now, are we? This will bring you all out!" Micheline hit a button and the Killer Wail started vibrating. The whole team jumped out of their ink and scrambled to the very edges of the platform. The Killer Wail let out an ear-piercing screech, almost knocking the team off balance. The sound wave dissipated. Micheline fired the Gatling cannon in a sweeping pattern across the platform. Callie leaped out and covered the platform back up in Inkling Ink again. Her hair started to ripple and blow in a non-existent wind.

"Special's ready!" She called.

Michael took initiative and started shooting at the jump pad, it started to glow and caused ink particles to start rising up into the air. Callie jumped in and was launched off into the air, at the peak of her jump, Michael called out again.

"Now! Activate it now!"

Callie pressed a button on her roller and transformed. She became a threatening black-colored Kraken, she spun in mid-air, making her look like a drill. She came down hard on the Octoweapon's Bubbler, and continued to spin. Electricity shot off the Bubbler as it glowed brighter than the sun.

"GET OFF OF THERE!" Micheline yelled, fury in her voice.

Callie continued to pick up speed in spinning, the electricity being generated routed into the ceiling and all throughout the room. The Bubbler began glowing a bright white.

Callie broke through. The Bubbler shattered, pieces of it falling into the abyss before disintegrating.

Callie's special ran out. She landed behind Micheline on the Octoweapon itself. Micheline hit the autopilot and auto-aim functions and went to face Callie herself. She kicked open a compartment on the control panel and pulled out an Octobrush. The two ran at each other.

The Octoweapon was now piloting itself, it strafed around the room while firing its Gatling cannon. The jump pad was quickly deactivated. Junko kept a path inked for the rest of the team, making sure they wouldn't be caught from being slowed down. The machine started firing from the Inkzooka, its strafing adding unpredictability to where the shots would come from.

Micheline diverted her attention from her personal scuffle to sound the facilities alarms once more. Multiple Elite Octolings came flooding into the arena, but stayed hidden in the ink that had been spread by the Octoweapon.

Shelly thought of something, she started spamming shots from her E-Liter, trying to fill up her special gauge as fast as possible. After a few shots, her hair began to ripple and glow. She pressed a button near the handle on her gun, setting off her Echolocator. Lines came from all her teammates and ended in rings that surrounded all Octolings in the area. They attempted to attack, only for most of them to be splatted. The team formed a circle at the center of the platform, being able to splat every Octoling that tried to attack.

The team stayed in the same formation for a moment. No Octolings seemed to be left.

Then the team felt a rumble underneath their feet. The ink turned from their colors to an Octoling's fuchsia. The team took this as a bad sign and shambled away, their feet getting stuck in the enemy ink.

With a huge blast of Octarian ink an Elite Octoling jumped out. She was breathing heavily and looked around. She then pulled out two Octoshots and disappeared in a cloud of violet vapor.

The team looked around, they covered up the platform in their ink again. But the Octoling didn't appear.

Suddenly she appeared in another cloud of vapor, behind Randy. She grabbed onto him, locking her legs around his chest. She put both Octoshots to his head and fired. Randy was quick enough to dive down into his ink before getting splatted. The Octoling landed on her feet and disappeared again.

Reappearing behind Angela this time, the Octoling kicked both feet into her back, jumping into the air and starting to fire. She hit every teammate with her ink with scary accuracy. Before landing she once more disappeared and reappeared, messing with the team.

"Rrgh! I've had enough of this!" Marie said. She then shot around the room wildly, hoping to hit the Octoling. The Octoling decided to have fun and started appearing right in Marie's sight and disappearing before she could aim at her. Marie continued firing around the room, getting angrier and angrier.

The Octoling was able to get in a few shots, bringing Marie dangerously close to being splatted.

Marie had something in store for the Octoling that she didn't expect, however. Her hair began to ripple and glow. She pressed a button on her Splatterscope. With a manic grin on her face she then began to crazily toss Splat Bombs around.

The Octoling appeared right above one and was blasted into the air before she could react. Her Octoshots went flying. Junko caught one.

Marie loomed over the Octoling when she landed and jammed the barrel of her Splatterscope into her head, charged, and fired, splatting the Octoling.

The battle raged onwards.

Micheline's Octobrush clashed against Callie's Roller. The two hit their weapons together, locking them in place. Micheline was stronger, knocking the Roller out of Callie's hands. Callie then went in for a punch, hitting Micheline in the face, knocking the Octobrush out of her hands as well.

"Gettin' physical, huh?" Micheline responded by running in, throwing in hooks repeatedly from the left and right. Callie grabbed Micheline by the shoulder and head, reared her head back, and slammed it into Micheline's face. Micheline's eyes rolled back into her head. She stumbled back, beginning to bleed from her face. Callie ran in further and threw in a punch, but was quickly blocked. Micheline brought up her knee and crashed it into the side of Callie's head. Micheline went for a hit straight to the face, knocking Callie dangerously close to the edge of the Octoweapon. Micheline ran up and began trying to push Callie off. Callie was sitting precariously on the edge.

"Why do you keep on trying, Callie? Is it for Michael? Do you think that just because you fight me, keeping with that sweet determination of yours, you'll earn his love? Let me tell you something, nothing's EVER that easy!"

The Octoweapon rumbled, knocking off Micheline's balance, setting Callie free from her grasp.

"Dammit! What was that!?"

She checked the Octoweapon's status, the Killer Wail had been blasted off. Callie took the opportunity to grab her roller and super jump back to the group.

Micheline sat back down in her seat and turned the Octoweapon back over into her control.

"Curious. You're all still alive."

"You bet!" Randy said, defiantly.

"Well, I certainly love your enthusiasm. But don't get ahead of yourselves now. I'm still alive, and as long as that holds true, none of you will be leaving." Electricity started to spark from the Octoweapon. "Everything that's happened up to now has merely been a practice round, a tutorial level, for what is going to happen next." Micheline pressed more buttons. The Octoweapon's robotic hands grew giant steel spikes at the knuckles and the destroyed Killer Wail was taken away and replaced by a huge cubical rocket launcher. It seemed to hold 15 Inkstrikes in it at once.

"Now the fun _really_ begins."

The Octoweapon started firing its Gatling cannon and Inkzooka once more. The rocket launcher fired five Inkstrikes around the platform in a circle, blocking off all of it except the center. Then in a plus formation, and finally in a cross formation. The rocket launcher dove down and restocked its supply of Inkstrikes.

The two robotic hands launched themselves like rockets. Michael began firing at them, remembering his fight with Octavio from before. The rockets were repelled like before but just before hitting the Octoweapon they did a complete 180 and came back, faster. Angela jumped in to help, shooting at one fist while Michael shot at the other. They re-routed again, even faster this time. Randy started firing at Angela's and Shelly started aiming to Michael's. The fists continued to re-route, getting progressively faster and faster. The entire team was beginning to fire at the fists.

Then, finally, they didn't re-route. They impacted the Octoweapon and blew up, one destroying the Inkzooka.

"DAMMIT!" Micheline said, smashing the rocket firing button in retaliation.

The rocket launcher shot five rockets at a time, now in a Z formation, then a W formation, and finally launched the last five in the clip one at a time, instinctively tracking the team.

Micheline continued firing the Gatling cannon while the rockets restocked once more. She only had these last 15 rockets to launch. After that, it was all up to her Gatling cannon.

Michael looked to his special gauge, it was nearly full. _'Angela and Randy's should be ready soon, too.'_

Michael quickly told the two to fill their special gauge as quickly as they could. The three began counter-inking the Gatling cannon. Angela's filled up first. Her hair began rippling and glowing.

"Angela! Get the rocket launcher!"

"Oh no you don't!" Micheline fired all 15 rockets left at once. Angela pressed a button on her .52 Gal and quickly aimed her Killer Wail. It vibrated and then let out another ear-piercing screech. It splatted all of the rockets and broke the rocket launcher to pieces.

Michael was up next, his hair began to ripple and glow as he pressed a button on his Octoshot, bringing out an Inkzooka. Michael thought for a moment, then thought of something new. He took out a Suction Bomb, filled it with ink, and set it off. He then placed it firmly on the barrel of the Inkzooka and held down the trigger. The gun began to rumble fiercely. The Suction Bomb detonated and let loose the tidal wave. The Inkzooka shot a tornado the likes of which would've made the Rainmaker look like a water gun. It surrounded the Gatling cannon and pulled it straight off its hinges, smashing the weapon into the wall, causing a mini-earthquake.

Now Randy's hair began to ripple and glow. "RANDY! NOW!" Michael shouted.

Randy pressed a button on his Splatling. His ink tank then transformed into an Inkstrike. He pulled out an aiming device and mashed his finger into the area where the Octoweapon floated. He covered his ears as the missile launched.

Micheline panicked, she piloted the Octoweapon towards the platform. The Inkstrike was headed straight for her.

At the very last moment, she jumped. Just as the missile hit.

The cyclone of ink sucked up the Octoweapon. The ink inside the massive machine mingled with the ink from the Inkstrike. The two forces imbalanced each other, and then burst in a spectacular combination of color and electricity.

Chunks of metal flew across the room. The team ducked down to avoid a piece hurtling their way.

The last Great Octoweapon was destroyed. Along with its destruction was the death of the Replica Great Zapfish.

Micheline was hanging on the edge of the platform. She pulled herself up just barely. She scrambled and activated the control panel bringing a certain passageway out and connecting it to the platform. She ran away.

The team gave chase.


	34. Reconciliation

Micheline ran through the last hall of the Presidio. She desperately moved her feet like the wind.

"I have to get there." She repeated to herself between breaths.

She came to a ladder, and jumped down. The team followed suit.

They were now in the lower area of the Presidio, where only the highest-ranking Octarians were allowed. But they wouldn't be here for long. Micheline had one last ace up her sleeve.

She entered a large room. It was mostly made of glass tiles, giving a clear view into Octo Valley.

And the abyss below.

The team entered the room. It seemed to be a stadium of sorts, almost like a meeting place. Their eyes locked onto Micheline who was standing at a panel at the far end of the room.

"Sis, please! What more needs to happen for you to stop all this!?" Michael cried.

"Nothing."

Michael was confused.

"You've destroyed my last resort. You even unwittingly destroyed the last power source here. Nothing needs to happen anymore. Well, no, that's not entirely true…"

The room tilted, throwing everyone off balance.

"You all still have to die here."

With the final source of power the Octarians destroyed, the Presidio was nothing more than an organized pile of steel. The sound of screeching metal pierced the air, the support beams that had held up the Presidio's lower area were falling to pieces.

"We have to get out of here, NOW!" Angela cried to the team. Everyone broke into a run for the exit.

"None of you are going anywhere!" Micheline yelled, slamming her fist onto a button on her control panel. The doors to the room hastily locked shut.

The team looked back to their captor, a rabid smile on her face.

"Even with the Presidio's power gone, I can still kill all of you. The seven of you have doomed me to die in this facility, and by God I will bring you all down with me. I will go down as a hero who killed the biggest enemies to Octavio."

"Micheline, please! There's still time to get out of here, we can save you!" Michael desperately yelled.

"NO! I have failed too many times today, I cannot face my comrades now. If there is one thing I can do before my life ends, it's to stop you from ever hindering the Octarians again!"

Marie started yelling to her "Micheline, listen to me! Your so-called 'comrades' captured you, forcibly turned you against your own brother, and have made you do horrible things to your original race! Please, think for a moment! You don't need to do this!"

Micheline's smile partially faded, uncertainty clouding her mind. "I do need to do this! They are my brothers-in-arms and you are their enemies! W-We may have done some horrible things, but it was for the greater good! It must have been!" Sweat started to bead her forehead.

Michael was about to say something again, until the room tilted downwards. The support beams weren't going to hold for much longer.

"Sis, you don't have to die here, none of us do! And… and if you really are going to take us with you, think about it, who is going to know that you killed us?"

"They will know! I'm sure that they will!"

"But what if they don't?" Michael tried a scare tactic. "What if they forgot that you were down here? What if you end up just being a corpse that's in a forgotten pile of metal at the bottom of a cliff?"

Micheline's smile had completely disappeared, instead replaced with a frown of uncertainty. She couldn't deny that the Octarians had shown little regard for soldiers who died in battle. What if she really was forgotten? The thought scared her, more than anything else had recently. The only thing that had scared her more was when…

When she was captured by those who she now called her comrades.

She hesitated… her brain was being strained trying to make a decision. She looked at the various people in the team, all of them were scared, like she was. Michael was watching her intently, tears beginning to form on his eyes.

A cord in her head snapped, and she hit the button again, opening the doors once more. She jumped over the control panel and ran to the team.

All eight rushed out of the room, running through the hallway that was falling apart. At the end of the hall, they started climbing, just as they heard more ear-piercing sounds of metal breaking apart. They picked up their pace, climbing the ladder as fast as they could.

Soon, they reached the top. All of them scrambled to the next room. They could clearly hear the disaster happening down there, up until the whole lower half of the facility gave way and fell to the bottom.

They didn't even hear a crash.

Micheline was terrified to think about what would have happened if she hadn't opened the doors back up.

She was trembling, falling apart inside. She almost got herself killed, and worse, almost killed the brother she loved, as well as his friends. She cupped her face in her hands, she held back her tears, taking in sharp breaths.

She felt the tightness of her mask loosen, and lifted her hands from her face to let it be removed. She looked up, and saw that Michael had dropped the mask on the floor.

"M-Michael, I…" She didn't have any way to explain herself.

"It's okay, sis."

"N-No, it's not okay. I-I almost killed you, and your friends. And I brainwashed you and made you fight them too. I… I don't know what I was thinking. I'm so, so sorry." Her voice was choked up, she could barely get the last word out.

"I understand, sis."

There he was, calling her "sis" again. Even after all this, he still considered her his sister. Even when they weren't even the same species anymore. She was still his sister.

And he was still her brother.

Micheline began to cry. Sputtering out multiple apologies. Michael pulled her into a hug, and she hugged back twice as hard. Her tears stained his shirt, but he didn't let up. The team didn't intervene, they needed the time together.

Soon Micheline calmed down. The two siblings were still holding each other.

"Michael..?" Micheline said, her voice hoarse.

"Yeah, sis?"

"I'm tired… Tired of all of this…"

"Me too, sis. Me too."

* * *

Michael carried Micheline the way home. Captain Cuttlefish was thrilled to see her again, but would speak to her later. She needed rest.

The team entered Inkopolis again. It was now midday.

A crowd formed around the team as they walked through. Most eyes on Michael. Questions were thrown about.

" _Who's that?" "Isn't she an Octoling?" "Who're those others?"_

While curious, the crowd could tell the team needed space. Their expressions practically begged for rest. Bags were under all of their eyes.

They walked the rest of the way, back to the team's house.

"Hey, Shell? Is it alright if sis sleeps in your room? She can take my bed."

"Yes, of course."

"Thank you." Michael took Micheline into his room and set her up on the top bunk bed. Everyone crashed and burned, all of them falling asleep in various places of the house.

Michael was able to stay up just a bit longer.

He didn't think of anything. He couldn't.

He could only feel relief.

Relief over his sister's life.

Relief over his friends' lives.

Relief over everyone's lives.

He could finally rest.

And rest he did.


	35. Life Moves Forward - EPILOGUE

_**One Month Later…**_

* * *

Snow blanketed the ground. Michael wore a thick coat, boots, a warm hat, and a scarf that day. He exited the house. He would never tire of the feeling of a nice winter morning. He went out to the Plaza. Heading to the café, he found Junko sitting at the counter. She was wearing a hoodie and sipping from a cup of cappuccino. He took a seat next to her.

"Yo." He greeted.

"Hey."

"D'you know where the others are?"

"Randy, Shell, Ange, and Micheline are all hanging out at Booyah Base. Micheline wants to get back into Turf Wars after being gone from them for so long, so they took her out shopping."

"Cool." He'd go visit them later.

Michael glanced around the place, there were Inklings and Octarians alike socializing. After the team returned from the Presidio, Michael, Callie, Marie, and Cuttlefish all did their best to help bring peace between the Inklings and Octarians. Although the official business was still pretty rocky, most Inklings welcomed the Octarians. They integrated well into Inkling culture, despite the words of protestors. It warmed Michael to see two previous mortal enemies become so friendly with each other.

Michael ordered a Latte. He and Junko sat in silence for a moment before she spoke up.

"Hey, I just wanted to say… I haven't thanked you yet so, thank you for helping the Octarians out."

Michael chuckled. "Heh, no thanks necessary. I was just doing my job."

"Oh don't give me that, I know you." She replied, grinning. "And hey, as extra thanks…" She leaned in close and gave Michael a quick peck on the cheek.

Michael's face turned red and he looked at her, surprised. Junko simply giggled in response. She left her seat, taking her coffee with her.

"I'll catch you later, yeah?"

Michael's face turned back to its original color, with a bit of red left over. "Yeah." He smiled.

He used up the next few minutes finishing his coffee. He paid, and left. He came across his friends heading towards the Tower.

"Yo! Mike!" Randy called him over. "Hey, we were all planning to hit up some Turf War, wanna join in?"

Michael looked to the rest of his friends. Angela, Shelly, Junko, and Micheline.

"Yeah, of course."

"Alright!" Randy said, fist-bumping Michael. The team walked into the tower.

"Hey, Mikey, whaddya think of my new weapon?" Angela held up the gun in question.

Michael laughed. "It just looks like a regular old .52 Gal."

"It's ain't just any 52 Gal! It's a 52 Gal _Deco_! It's got Seekers and an Inkstrike."

"Cool."

He looked to his sister. She had gotten a new weapon. It was a Dual Squelcher.

"Hey, nice new weapon, sis."

"Thanks. Shelly bought it for me." Micheline's voice had changed over the past few months. It had grown softer. It was back to what Michael remembered it being all that time ago.

"Y'all ready to go?" Angela asked.

"Yep! Let's get into those Turf Wars." Michael said.

The six of them entered the tower.

Michael looked back before entering the tower. The sky was clear of clouds at the moment.

He never understood why, but now, the sun seemed to shine brighter than ever before.

 **THE END.**


	36. Post Script (No I won't delete this one)

**Hey guys, I just wanted to say thank you all so much for taking the time to read this story. This is my first story I've completed, and I'm pretty proud of it, not gonna lie.**

 **This is just a bit of notes about the story that I thought you might all like. Plus a bit of an announcement at the end.**

 **Originally in the Presidio arc, Junko was meant to meet and fight her old mentor. He would've wielded a modified Octobrush and would have also been the reason why Junko couldn't immediately regroup with the team, not just due to keeping up a disguise to get a little hero moment during the fight with Micheline.**

 **Originally I was going to slip in a romance sub-plot between Michael and Shelly but realized it detracted from the story too much.**

 **During the writing of the story, I originally wrote three different endings, all differing in how the fight with Michelne would have ended. They were basically a bad, bittersweet, and good ending, with the good ending obviously being what I went with.**

 **In the bittersweet ending, Micheline would have been fatally wounded during the fight, but during her final moments Michael would have been able to snap her out of her brainwashing. She'd apologize for what she did and would have died embracing Michael.**

 **In the bad ending, Micheline would also have been fatally wounded during the fight, and would have also killed one of the team members in a last ditch effort. It was a toss-up between Angela, Randy, Shelly** **or Junko dying, I simply never decided on one since the ending went unused. Michael also wouldn't have been able to snap Micheline out of being brainwashed and she would have died hateful towards him. The news of an Inkling being murdered by an Octarian would have rang out through Inkopolis, forever keeping Junko and the Octarians living underneath Inkopolis from fully integrating into Inkling culture. The story would have finished with Michael falling into a depression where he didn't think of himself as a hero anymore and resigned from the role of Agent 3. He would have left Inkopolis and moved back in with his parents, not wanting to face his remaining friends anymore. If it was either Angela or Shelly who died, Randy would have been confused and angered by their deaths, and would have come to blame Michael for it and kicked him out of the house.**

 **Also, I'll be posting pics of the loadouts for each of the characters over on imgur. I'll be posting a new chapter page with all of them soon.**

* * *

 **Well, after all that, I guess I should make the announcement, huh?  
Here goes.  
I had thoughts of making a bit of a more laid-back sequel to this series about Michael continuing his turf war career. But I wanted to know if you guys want it as much as I want to make it. It won't have much in the way of serious story as this one did, but would be more focused on humor and character building/interactions. It'd basically be a fun little side-project to work on. Make a review or send me a PM and tell me your opinion on this.**

 **That's all for today, I'll see you guys later!**


	37. Small List of Sequel Ideas

**Over these past few days I've gotten multiple replies from you guys and it seems like you all want a sequel. I'm happy to oblige. To convince anyone of this idea further, I'd like to put down a few ideas I have for this sequel. Since the story is based around the plot of Michael going around and improving in Turf Wars and eventually Ranked Battles he and his team are going to meet more and more squid squads. I'd like to put a few of my ideas for these teams here.**

 **Orange Team**

 **Probably one of the most prestigious teams in Inkopolis, the Orange team is comprised of very high-ranking Inklings. The members are all very experienced in Ranked Matches and are ranked quite high. Unexpectedly, however, most of their time is spent in Turf Wars. All of them love the original game mode battling was based on, and play it regularly. They're also quite skilled in Splat Zones, seeing as it's based around the same idea as Turf Wars, only restricted to certain areas. They're pretty good at Tower Control, as a few of them are capable of holding an area on their own. Rainmaker is not their strongsuit, however. As such, Michael's squad will most likely face them in a Turf War or Splat Zones, as the higher ranking team in an official Squad Battle gets to choose which mode is played.**

 **Blue Team**

 **Second only to Orange team, Blue team has had a long-standing friendly rivalry with Orange team. Blue team is quite high ranked, almost surpassing Orange. But their weakness when it comes to Turf War and Splat Zones sets them back quite a bit. Blue team can be quite ruthless at times, and will sometimes even spawncamp to ensure a win. This isn't a common occurance, however, spawncamping is only an absolute last resort. Despite lacking in Turf Wars and Splat Zones, they excel in Rainmaker and Tower Control. Their leader's ability to get a Rainmaker from its starting point to the goal is almost terrifying, and he's made sure to train his squadmates the same way. Michael's Squad will most likely face them in a Rainmaker match.**

 **Green Team**

 **The "Go With the Flow" team. They're not particularly high ranking, but don't mind as they firmly hold the philosophy of battles being for fun. Even if they go on a major losing streak, as long as they had fun during the matches they won't mind. This has led to some rocky relations between them and Blue team, due to Blue team's past of occasional spawncamping, leading to arguments about whether spawncamping should be a bannable offense or not. Other than this, the team is as chill as chill can get. They'd probably be cool to hang out with in real life. Despite their fun attitude, they should not be underestimated in any battle. They're a jack-of-all-trades, and if they play their cards right, they can completely curbstomp a team comprised entirely of S+ rank players. They're the team with the most coordination out of all, using pure teamwork to turn small weaknesses into crippling disabilities. Type of battle with Michael's squad has not been decided on yet.**

 **Pink Team**

 **More concerned with freshness than battling, Pink team is at first glance a joke of a team. With clothing of a mulititude of different tier levels and certain weapons generally seen as unviable they're greatly underestimated. However, they pride themselves in the strange and unusual, using confusion tactics. This, paired with their constant change in gear leads them to be truly one of the most unpredictable opponents one can face in battles. They might go on a 22 win streak one day, and fall into a 18 lose streak the next. Mode specialization not decided on yet. Type of battle with Michael's squad has not been decided on yet either.**

 **Purple Team**

 **This team takes Blue team's occasional ruthlessness, Orange team's skill, and Green team's teamwork and turns them all up to beyond the highest setting. Long-time veterans, this team is comprised of elite battlers from across the world. They will not hesitate to spawncamp, take major pride in their long-standing S ranks, and will work together with such pinpoint precision some will swear they're being remote controlled. Or cheating. The team isn't very well-known around Inkopolis, due to their recent formation, but many take first glances and see the team as a team of A-Holes. Despite all this, they're surprisingly friendly, offering advice and tricks to novice squads unfortunate enough to face them. One of them even has history with one of the heros, I wonder who it is...**

 **Along with these team ideas, I've also had some ideas for alternate squid species to be featured in this series, along with alternate octopus species for Octarian characters. I've gotten some special inspiration for this from axl-fox over on tumblr. Go check them out!**

 **Well, that's the ideas I've got so far, let me know what you guys think!**

 **Until next time, see y'all later.**


	38. BONUS CHAPTER: Endgame

**So, while I finish up the next chapter of the sequel, I decided to post this unused chapter for this story. This was written a long while ago, back when the sub-plot between Michael and Shelly was still something I wanted to do for the story. Also, at this point, Micheline and Junko didn't exist yet.**

 **So, I hope this sates you guys enough for the next chapter of Electric Splataloo 2.**

* * *

The sun had almost set. Angela and Randy had retired for the night, leaving Michael and Shelly on the roof of the house together. Michael looked over to Shelly, she looked nice in the light the sun was giving.

"Hey, Shelly?"

"Yeah?"

"I've been wondering. You remember back when I was new to the team, and you did all that stuff like get into my bed in the middle of the night?"

"Yeah. Yeah I remember." Shelly laughed at the memory.

"I want to know, did you love me back then like you do now?"

"Oh, no. Not at all."

"Why'd you do all that stuff then?"

Shelly paused a bit before answering. "I just like messing with the new guys to the team a bit, that's all. I'm sure Angela's told you but I was like that too when Randy joined."

"Yeah, she's told me."

The two looked back at the sunset for a bit before Michael broke the silence.

"So, if you didn't love me immediately, when do you think you started?"

Shelly mulled over the question for a moment.

"I don't really know, honestly. It's kind of hard for me to pinpoint a certain time. I think it started developing the more I saw of how you took care of Angela, Randy, and I. You were always checking in on us when something happened, you were the first to go ahead into danger almost all the time, when one of us wasn't doing well emotionally you'd always provide moral support the best you could. Even if it ended up not helping much you still did your personal best."

Michael thought the response over, then started laughing.

"What?"

"It's nothing. I'm just thinking to all the movies I watched when I was younger. Always with these people falling in love at first sight. Back then I thought love was that easy in the real world. Now that I'm actually in a relationship it's so much more complicated than what movies show. I don't mean that in a bad way either. I think I can honestly say that I'm having the time of my life just being with all three of you. Our relationship just makes that feeling all the sweeter."

"You know, Michael. I've seen your genius in battle, how great you are in Turf Wars, and I know that you defeated the Octarians and their leader by yourself. But on the inside, you're just a big softie." Shelly said as she wrapped her arms around Michael's waist.

"Hey, c'mon now. Don't act like you're not a big softie too." Michael returned Shelly's embrace.

They broke off from the hug. Both sat and watched the sunset together until it had fully disappeared from the horizon. Once night fell the two left the roof, but not before saying:

"I love you, Shelly."

"I love you too, Michael."


End file.
